Novel insights into plant vascular development: disclosing a mechanism to maintain thermospermine homeostasis in the xylem

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Wood is one of the most important natural renewable resources. The developmental processes that underlie wood formation follow a well defined sequence of events that start at the core of the vascular cambium - the stem cell niche - that perpetually nourishes cells to the inside of the stem that ultimately become xylem/wood cells. The processes of specification and differentiation of cells into the xylem cell-types are far from being fully understood. It is a known fact that cells fated to become xylem have to commit suicide in order to serve this purpose.(...)