Plant growth and development - basic knowledge and current views

One of the most intriguing questions in life science is how living organisms develop and maintain their predominant form and shape via the cascade of the processes of differentiation starting from the single cell. Mathematical modeling of these developmental processes could be a very important tool to properly describe the complex processes of evolution and geometry of morphogenesis in time and space. Here, we summarize the most important biological knowledge on plant development, exploring the different layers of investigation in developmental processes such as plant morphology, genetics, plant physiology, molecular biology and epigenetics. As knowledge on the fundamentals of plant embryogenesis, growth and development is constantly improving, we gather here the latest data on genetic, molecular and hormonal regulation of plant development together with the basic background knowledge. Special emphasis is placed on the regulation of cell cycle progression, on the role of the signal molecules phytohormones in plant development and on the details of plant meristems (loci containing plant stem cells) function. We also explore several proposed biological models regarding regulating plant development. The information presented here could be used as a basis for mathematical modeling and computer simulation of developmental processes in plants.