The Physiological Age of Asexual Plants——Thinking Arise from Telomere Length

The change of telomere length during aging of plant cells has been found to be much more complicated than that in animals. It can be divided into the invariant group, the prolongation group, the shortening group and the circle change group. Nevertheless, the age of plants can also be predicted based on telomere length. Moreover, the telomere length can change during plant tissue culture. Thus, the physiological age of asexual plants is worth to be studied. In the article, the physiological age of asexual plants is discussed based on telomere length. It is concluded that the older donor might produce clone with small body but old physiological age, telomere length might be a novel reliable indicator for assessment the ability of both asexual propagation and callus redifferentiation of plants, the relationship between old-tree reinvigoration and telomere length might be a good research project. Furthermore, it is proposed that plant calli need enough time to erase the traces of the explants. Many problems about the telomere length during asexual propagation of plants are urgent to be researched and explored.