Morning CNP’ers,
An interesting piece of research has just come out of the US which suggests that ordinary plant cells have the ability to replace lost organs in plants – an idea, thought to be limited to STEM CELLS….
Historically, STEM CELLS were thought to be the primary cells for regeneration of plant tissues (e.g. new root forming from a severed root or a cut branch sprouting new growth). However, the results form this study suggest that STEM CELLS return ‘quite late’ in the regeneration process after other cells are replaced.
The study also reported that ‘ordinary cells’ could not regenerate without functional stem cells, indicating that these cells could not replace the function of STEM CELLS.
For the press release surrounding this work visit:
http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/2465 
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