THE INTERNAL MERISTEM LAYER (L3) DETERMINES FLORAL MERISTEM SIZE AND CARPEL NUMBER IN TOMATO PERICLINAL CHIMERAS

Cell-cell interactions are important during plant development. We have generated periclinal chimeras between plants that differ in the number of carpels per flower to determine the roles of cells occupying specific positions in the floral meristem in determining the number of carpels initiated. Intraspecific chimeras were generated between tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) expressing the mutation fasciated, which causes an increased number of floral organs per whorl, and tomato wild type for fasciated. Interspecific chimeras were generated between tomato and L. peruvianum, which differ in number of carpels per flower. In both sets of chimeras, carpel number as well as the size of the floral meristem during carpel initiation were not determined by the genotype of cells in the outer two layers of the meristem (L1 and L2) but were determined by the genotype of cells occupying the inner layer (L3) of the meristem. We concluded from these experiments that during floral organ initiation, cells in certain layers of the meristem respond to information supplied to them from other cells in the meristem.