Developmental mechanism underpinning leaf shape evolution

Abstract

Ever since Darwin’s pioneering research, a major challenge in the field of evolutionary biology has been to understand the regulatory mechanisms that give rise to developmental variation during the course of evolution. Leaf development has been characterized in several species, making the leaf a model organ for analyzing the mechanisms underlying natural morphological variation in plants. In this review, I summarize key findings mainly in the gene regulatory network in leaf development of Arabidopsis thaliana and our recent study investigating the natural variation of leaf shape seen in tomato and relative species. I discuss these issues to understand the molecular mechanism underpinning leaf morphological evolution and to obtain insights into the future direction of plant evolutionary developmental biology.