Mutant Gene Flattens Leaves

red and yellow flowers grow among green leaves

Biological Strategy

Sharp-leaved cancerwort

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Image: Shadowmeld Photography / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Capture, Absorb, or Filter Energy

Energy is naturally available in many forms, including kinetic, potential, thermal, elastic, radiant, chemical, and more. All living systems require energy to carry out their many activities, and have developed strategies appropriate to one or more of those forms. For example, some plants maximize their surface area available for capturing radiant energy from the sun while others have strategies to focus scattered light onto photosynthesizing areas.

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Regulate Reproduction or Growth

Reproduction and growth are two physiological processes that occur in all living systems. There are situations when conditions are right for both, and other situations when continuing either harms the living system because both have a very high energy cost. Reproduction and growth are unique in that both can stop until conditions improve, although stopping either for an extended time can cause problems. An example of regulating reproduction is a process called delayed implantation or embryonic diapause found in some mammals, such as otters. An otter’s embryos sometimes temporarily cease developing and won’t develop further until the female senses that conditions are suitable.

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Modify Size/Shape/Mass/Volume

Many living systems alter their physical properties, such as size, shape, mass, or volume. These modifications occur in response to the living system’s needs and/or changing environmental conditions. For example, they may do this to move more efficiently, escape predators, recover from damage, or for many other reasons. These modifications require appropriate response rates and levels. Modifying any of these properties requires materials to enable such changes, cues to make the changes, and mechanisms to control them. An example is the porcupine fish, which protects itself from predators by taking sips of water or air to inflate its body and to erect spines embedded in its skin.

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Flowering Plants

Clade Angiosperms (“receptacle seed”): Dandelions, oaks, grasses, cacti, apples

With 416 families containing some 300,000 known species, angiosperms are the most diverse group of plants, and they can be found around the globe in a wide variety of habitats. They are characterized by seeds that grow enclosed in ovaries, which are enclosed in flowers. The floral organs then develop into fruits of myriad kinds and dimensions, from simple seed casings on maples to elaborate fleshy growths like papayas. The oldest flower known from fossils, Montsechia vidalii, appeared during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago. They are the primary food source for herbivorous animals, which in turn makes them the indirect food source for carnivores as well.

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Mutant gene of snapdragons enhances photosynthesis by causing leaves to grow flat through uniform cell growth.

Image: Magnus Manske / Wikimedia commons /

Antirrhinum majus, Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Image: Brenda Avery / Wikimedia commons /

A snapdragon

Plants usually grow flat leaves to maximize the amount of sunlight they capture for . And now we know how. Unchecked, a leaf is more likely to be curved than flat. The leaf will buckle if cells near the edge grow more rapidly than cells near the center, and if the opposite happens the leaf becomes cup-shaped. Now it appears that the snapdragon uses a gene called CIN to ensure that cells in all regions of the leaf grow at a uniform rate, keeping the surface flat. (Courtesy of the Guild)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Journal article

CINCINNATA Controls Both Cell Differentiation and Growth in Petal Lobes and Leaves of Antirrhinum

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY | 12/05/2004 | B. C.W. Crawford

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Reference

Journal article

Genetic control of surface curvature

Journal article

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