SOURCES AND CONSEQUENCES PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN FLOWERING PLANTS

Plants possess a characteristic life cycle with an alternation of hapl oid and diploid generations, continual somatic organogenesis, and no g erm line. There is a close interrelationship between phenotypic plasti city in response to a variable environment, mechanisms generating heri table changes, and cell fate determination during embryogenesis and so matic growth. Gain-of-function mutations may make a substantial contri bution to diversity in angiosperm morphology and biochemistry.