Page 45 - Miracles of The Qur'an Vol. 3

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)

tle is known about the cellular, molecular, and develop-
mental processes that underlie wood formation. Xylogenesis repre-
sents an example of cell differentiation in an exceptionally complex
form. This process is controlled by a wide variety of factors both ex-
ogenous (photoperiod and temperature) and endogenous (phyto-
hormones) and by interaction between them. It is driven by the co-
ordinated expression of numerous structural genes (some of known
function) involved in cell origination, differentiation, programmed
cell death, and heartwood (HW) formation and by virtually un-
known regulatory genes orchestrating this ordered developmental
sequence. The presence of gene families and the extreme plasticity of
the metabolism involved (as exemplified by the unusual behavior of
plants with transformed cell walls; for review, see Fagard et al., 2000)
add a further complexity to our understanding of the process of
wood formation. 24

The extraordinary Creation in wood is emphasized thus in another
scientific journal, Annals of Botany:
Wood formation is a highly complicated process involving an unbe-
lievable variety of metabolic steps in the roots, stem and crown of
shrubs and trees. At the centre of these processes is cambial activity
which results in the release of young woody cells that undergo mat-
uration until autolysis of the protoplast, indicating the final devel-
opmental stage. Later on, in various tree species, woody cells become
further modified by an additional process called heartwood forma-
tion. The properties of wood that make it an appropriate raw mater-
ial for many purposes are largely determined by the specific archi-
tecture of the cell walls. Difficulties in investigating these many de-
velopmental stages appear when routine techniques, which work
well for soft plant tissues, are applied. Therefore, in most cases, these
techniques need modification or the use of completely revised pro-
tocols to yield good results for woody tissues. 25

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