title: Heterochrony underpins natural variation in Cardamine hirsuta leaf form.
abstract: A key problem in biology is whether the same processes underlie morphological variation between and within species. Here, by using plant leaves as an example, we show that the causes of diversity at these two evolutionary scales can be divergent. Some species like the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have simple leaves, whereas others like the A. thaliana relative Cardamine hirsuta bear complex leaves comprising leaflets. Previous work has shown that these interspecific differences result mostly from variation in local tissue growth and patterning. Now, by cloning and characterizing a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for C. hirsuta leaf shape, we find that a different process, age-dependent progression of leaf form, underlies variation in this trait within species. This QTL effect is caused by cis-regulatory variation in the floral repressor ChFLC, such that genotypes with low-expressing ChFLC alleles show both early flowering and accelerated age-dependent changes in leaf form, including faster leaflet production. We provide evidence that this mechanism coordinates leaf development with reproductive timing and may help to optimize resource allocation to the next generation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany;
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cartolano
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany;
authors.forename: Bjorn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pieper
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany;
authors.forename: Janne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lempe
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tattersall
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany;
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Huijser
authors.affiliation: Botanical Institute, University of Cologne, 50647 Cologne, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Achim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tresch
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Darrah
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany;
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hay
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, 50829 Cologne, Germany; tsiantis@mpipz.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Miltos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsiantis
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D017360:Arabidopsis; D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D031217:Cardamine / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D035264:Flowers; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D005838:Genotype; D008027:Light; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D012639:Seeds; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
keywords: Cardamine hirsuta; Flowering Locus C; compound leaf; heterochrony; natural variation