Abstract
Stump overgrowth may serve as a unique model for studying cellular reorganization and mechanisms responsible for cell polarity changes during the process of vascular tissue differentiation from initially unorganized parenchymatous cells. Cellular ordering and tissue reorganization during the overgrowth process of the transverse surfaces of Douglas fir stumps in forest stand was studied. At the beginning of stump overgrowth, the produced parenchymatous cells form an unorganized tissue. Particular parenchyma cells start arranging into more ordered structures which resemble rays. Application of digital image analysis software based on structure tensor was used. The analysis showed that at this stage of tissue development, cellular elements display a wide range of angular orientation values and attain very low coherency coefficients. The progress of the tissue differentiation process is associated with the formation of local regions with tracheids oriented circularly around the rays. This coincides with an increase in the range of angular orientations and greater values of coherency coefficients. At the most advanced stage of tissue development, with tracheids arranged parallelly in longitudinal strands, the degree of cell ordering is the highest what is manifested by the greatest values attained by coherency coefficients, and the narrow range of angular orientations. It is suggested that the ray-like structures could act as organizing centers in the morphogenetic field responsible for differentiation of the overgrowth tissue. The circular pattern of tracheids around rays in the initial phase of tissue development can be interpreted in terms of local rotation of the morphogenetic field which afterward is transformed into irrotational field. This transformation is noted by the presence of tracheids arranged parallelly in longitudinal strands. The possible involvement of a mechanism controlling cell polarity with respect to auxin transport is discussed.