The role of (stem) cell division in leaf growth

The growth of an organ is the result of the spatio-temporal regulation of cell division and cell expansion. We have developed kinematic analysis to quantify the role of these processes in response to perturbation of key regulatory genes. Here we report two surprising findings: the analysis of DELLA mutants shows that GA signalling affects cell division and the stem cell regulators SHR and SCR play a role in leaf development. For integrating experimental observations into a full understanding of the leaf developmental system, modelling is crucial. Our first modelling efforts show the potential of this approach, but also the challenges ahead.