Plant anatomy: at the heart of modern botany

Abstract

Anatomy is one of the oldest disciplines of plant science, and there is a huge amount of accumulated knowledge. At the same time, anatomy is highly important as a linking medium between several key branches of modern plant science. Detailed anatomical studies, these days using X-ray microtomography, allow much more detailed understanding of plant fossils and thus facilitate the accumulation of greatly extended non-molecular data sets. The use of anatomy is one of most efficient ways of increasing the number of characters in data sets employed to link fossil and extant plants. This link is essential for achieving the ambitious goal of acquiring a holistic knowledge of plant evolution combining the direct, but fragmentary evidence from the fossil record and the indirect, though highly informative data of molecular phylogenetics and phylogenomics. Anatomy is one of key tools of evo-devo research. Indeed, analyses of gene expression patterns are performed using anatomical techniques. More importantly, developmental biology of plants explores functioning of plant meristems and aspects of cell and tissue differentiation, the topics that have a long history of research in the framework of plant anatomy. Anatomy provides detailed information of the developmental processes in extant and extinct plants. Obviously, the detailed knowledge assembled through centuries of anatomical research has great perspectives of use in evolutionary developmental biology. Many theories developed in plant anatomy can be tested using molecular tools (e.g. Povilus et al., 2020), but it is important to pose the questions. Anatomy has many implications for plant physiology and ecology and provides an excellent tool for investigating historical aspects of these disciplines, including those related to climate change.