Review: Secondary growth as a determinant of plant shape and form

Secondary growth from the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, increases the plant’s girth. It also produces wood (secondary xylem) and important fibers like flax, jute and hemp (secondary phloem). Ragni and Greb review secondary growth in plants. They start with a review of the evolutionary history of secondary growth (which includes both gains and losses), and describe cambial oddities. They then summarize our understanding of cambium initiation and proliferation, and production of tissues derived from cambium. They also describe the roles of genes identified initially from studies of primary meristems (e.g., CLV1, WUS, KNOX) on control of cambium activities.  Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 10.1016/j.semcdb.2017.08.050