Body regeneration through formation of new organs is a major question in developmental biology. We investigated de novo root formation using whole leaves of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Our results show that local cytokinin biosynthesis and auxin biosynthesis in the leaf blade followed by auxin long-distance transport to the petiole leads to proliferation of J0121-marked xylem-associated tissues and others through signaling of INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID INDUCIBLE28 (IAA28), CRANE (IAA18), WOODEN LEG, and ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORS1 (ARR1), ARR10, and ARR12. Vasculature proliferation also involves the cell cycle regulator KIP-RELATED PROTEIN2 and ABERRANT LATERAL ROOT FORMATION4, resulting in a mass of cells with rooting competence that resembles callus formation. Endogenous callus formation precedes specification of postembryonic root founder cells, from which roots are initiated through the activity of SHORT-ROOT, PLETHORA1 (PLT1), and PLT2. Primordia initiation is blocked in shr plt1 plt2 mutant. Stem cell regulators SCHIZORIZA, JACKDAW, BLUEJAY, and SCARECROW also participate in root initiation and are required to pattern the new organ, as mutants show disorganized and reduced number of layers and tissue initials resulting in reduced rooting. Our work provides an organ regeneration model through de novo root formation, stating key stages and the primary pathways involved.Plants have striking regeneration capacities, and can produce new organs from postembryonic tissues (Hartmann et al., 2010;Chen et al., 2014;Liu et al., 2014) as well as reconstitute damaged organs upon wounding (Xu et al., 2006;Heyman et al., 2013; PerianezRodriguez et al., 2014;Melnyk et al., 2015;Efroni et al., 2016). Intriguingly, root regeneration upon stem cell damage recruits embryonic pathways (Hayashi et al., 2006;Efroni et al., 2016), whereas in contrast, postembryonic formation of whole new organs, such as lateral roots, appears to use specific postembryonic pathways (Lavenus et al., 2013).Cross talk between auxin and cytokinin signaling is required for many aspects of plant development and regeneration (El-Showk et al., 2013), although how their synergistic interaction is implemented at the molecular level has not been clarified (Skoog and Miller, 1957;Chandler and Werr, 2015). Exogenous in vitro supplementation of these two hormones results in continuous cell proliferation, to form a characteristic structure termed "callus". Callus emerges as a common regenerative mechanism for almost all plant organs through in vitro culture (Atta et al., 2009;Sugimoto et al., 2010). There is increasing evidence that callus formation requires hormone-mediated activation of a lateral and meristematic root development program in pericycle-like cells defined by expression of the J0121 marker 1 This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and FP7 Funds of the European Commission, BFU2013-41160-P, BFU2016-80315-P, and PCIG11-GA-2012-322082 to M.A....
