In plant studies it is essential to determine cell cycle duration (T). Zhukovskaya et al. have previously proposed an exponential model evaluating T in the root apical meristem (RAM) based on the dynamics of root growth, the number of cells in the RAM, and the length of fully elongated cells. Here, a global analysis of the approach was performed.
The results show that in most of the 73 angiosperm species examined, the T values obtained by this approach were nearly identical to those obtained by the much more laborious 3H-thymidine method. The ease of the approach promises its wide use.
