Transcriptional Networks Guiding Xylem Cell Differentiation in Space and Time

Plant root development provides a remarkably tractable system to delineate tissue-specific, developmental gene regulatory networks and to study their functionality in a complex multicellular model system over developmental time.  We present a gene regulatory network that regulates distinct transcriptional events in developmental time.   Distinct regulatory modules were identified that temporally drive the expression of genes involved in xylem specification and in the subsequent synthesis of secondary cell wall metabolites associated with xylem differentiation.