Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes
Apple (Malus spp.) is a widely grown and valuable fruit crop. Leaf shape is important for flowering in apple and may also be an early indicator for other agriculturally valuable traits. We examined 9,000 leaves from 869 unique apple accessions using linear measurements and comprehensive morphometric...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.02185/full |
| _version_ | 1818933239922819072 |
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| author | Zoë Migicovsky Mao Li Daniel H. Chitwood Daniel H. Chitwood Sean Myles |
| author_facet | Zoë Migicovsky Mao Li Daniel H. Chitwood Daniel H. Chitwood Sean Myles |
| author_sort | Zoë Migicovsky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Apple (Malus spp.) is a widely grown and valuable fruit crop. Leaf shape is important for flowering in apple and may also be an early indicator for other agriculturally valuable traits. We examined 9,000 leaves from 869 unique apple accessions using linear measurements and comprehensive morphometric techniques. We identified allometric variation as the result of differing length-to-width aspect ratios between accessions and species of apple. The allometric variation was due to variation in the width of the leaf blade, not the length. Aspect ratio was highly correlated with the first principal component (PC1) of morphometric variation quantified using elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFDs) and persistent homology (PH). While the primary source of variation was aspect ratio, subsequent PCs corresponded to complex shape variation not captured by linear measurements. After linking the morphometric information with over 122,000 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we found high SNP heritability values even at later PCs, indicating that comprehensive morphometrics can capture complex, heritable phenotypes. Thus, techniques such as EFDs and PH are capturing heritable biological variation that would be missed using linear measurements alone. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:45:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a23057b2060348829a266d42d8aa3238 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-462X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:45:14Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-a23057b2060348829a266d42d8aa32382022-12-21T19:53:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2018-01-01810.3389/fpls.2017.02185309518Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf ShapesZoë Migicovsky0Mao Li1Daniel H. Chitwood2Daniel H. Chitwood3Sean Myles4Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, CanadaDonald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, United StatesDepartment of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United StatesComputational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United StatesDepartment of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, CanadaApple (Malus spp.) is a widely grown and valuable fruit crop. Leaf shape is important for flowering in apple and may also be an early indicator for other agriculturally valuable traits. We examined 9,000 leaves from 869 unique apple accessions using linear measurements and comprehensive morphometric techniques. We identified allometric variation as the result of differing length-to-width aspect ratios between accessions and species of apple. The allometric variation was due to variation in the width of the leaf blade, not the length. Aspect ratio was highly correlated with the first principal component (PC1) of morphometric variation quantified using elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFDs) and persistent homology (PH). While the primary source of variation was aspect ratio, subsequent PCs corresponded to complex shape variation not captured by linear measurements. After linking the morphometric information with over 122,000 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we found high SNP heritability values even at later PCs, indicating that comprehensive morphometrics can capture complex, heritable phenotypes. Thus, techniques such as EFDs and PH are capturing heritable biological variation that would be missed using linear measurements alone.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.02185/fullappleleaf shapemorphometricselliptical Fourier descriptorspersistent homologyMalus domestica |
| spellingShingle | Zoë Migicovsky Mao Li Daniel H. Chitwood Daniel H. Chitwood Sean Myles Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes Frontiers in Plant Science apple leaf shape morphometrics elliptical Fourier descriptors persistent homology Malus domestica |
| title | Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes |
| title_full | Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes |
| title_fullStr | Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes |
| title_short | Morphometrics Reveals Complex and Heritable Apple Leaf Shapes |
| title_sort | morphometrics reveals complex and heritable apple leaf shapes |
| topic | apple leaf shape morphometrics elliptical Fourier descriptors persistent homology Malus domestica |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.02185/full |
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