XVI International Botanical Congess
Drift of albino sectors in the sectorial plant chimeras has been interpreted as indirect evidence of the initial impermanence at the apex. However, the same effect may result from the mutation in non-initial cell positioned closely to the vertex of the apical dome axis. Clonal analysis of the cell packets present in the 1-st tunica layer of spruce and magnolia apices provided the library of patterns suggesting that the position and the number of the initial cells, thus the meristem axis inclination, may change in time. In the geometric center of some apices multicellular clones originating from one cell have been found, in some others the cellular center, in which 3 or 4 clonal borders meet, was shifted from the geometric one. Such effects may result only from the initial impermanence.