Plant periderm as a continuum in structural organisation: a tracheophyte‐wide survey and hypotheses on evolution

Periderm is a well-known structural feature with vital roles in protection of inner plant tissues and wound healing. Despite its importance to plant survival, knowledge of periderm occurrences outside the seed plants is limited and the evolutionary origins of periderm remain poorly explored. Here, we review the current knowledge of the taxonomic distribution of periderm in its two main forms - canonical periderm (periderm formed as a typical ontogenetic stage) and wound periderm (periderm produced as a self-repair mechanism) - with a focus on major plant lineages, living and extinct. We supplement the published occurrences with data based on our own observations and experiments. This updated body of data reveals that the distribution of wound periderm is more widespread taxonomically than previously recognized and some living and extinct groups are capable of producing wound periderm, despite canonical periderm being absent from their normal developmental program. A critical review of canonical and wound periderms in extant and fossil lineages indicates that not all periderms are created equal. Their organisation is widely variable and the differences can be characterised in terms of variations in three structural features: (i) the consistency in orientation of periclinal walls within individual files of periderm cells; (ii) the lateral coordination of periclinal walls between adjacent cell files; and (iii) whether a cambial layer and conspicuous layering of inward and outward derivatives can be distinguished. Using a new system of scoring periderm structure based on these criteria, we characterise the level of organisation of canonical and wound periderms in different lineages. Looking at periderms through the lens provided by their level of organisation reveals that the traditional image of periderm as a single generalised feature, is best viewed as a continuum of structural configurations that are all predicated by the same basic process (periclinal divisions), but can fall anywhere between very loosely organized (diffuse periclinal growth) to very tightly coordinated (organized periclinal growth). Overall, wound periderms in both seed plants and seed-free plants have lower degrees of organisation than canonical periderms, which may be due to their initiation in response to inherently disruptive traumatic events. Wound and canonical periderms of seed plants have higher degrees of organisation than those of seed-free plants, possibly due to co-option of the programs responsible for organizing their vascular cambial growth. Given the importance of wound periderm to plant survival, its widespread taxonomic distribution, and its early occurrence in the fossil record, we hypothesise that wound periderm may have had a single origin in euphyllophytes and canonical periderm may have originated separately in different lineages by co-option of the basic regulatory toolkit of wound periderm formation. In one evolutionary scenario, wound periderm regulators activated initially by tissue tearing due to tensional stresses elicited by woody growth underwent heterochronic change that switched their activation trigger from tissue tearing to the tensional stresses that precede it, with corresponding changes in the signalling that triggered the regulatory cascade of periderm development from tearing-induced signals to signalling induced by tension in cells.