Model-based reconstruction of whole organ growth dynamics reveals invariant patterns in leaf morphogenesis.

Abstract

Plant organ morphogenesis spans several orders of magnitude in time and space. Because of limitations in live-imaging, analysing whole organ growth from initiation to mature stages typically rely on static data sampled from different timepoints and individuals. We introduce a new model-based strategy for dating organs and for reconstructing morphogenetic trajectories over unlimited time windows based on static data. Using this approach, we show that Arabidopsis thaliana leaves are initiated at regular 1-day intervals. Despite contrasted adult morphologies, leaves of different ranks exhibited shared growth dynamics, with linear gradations of growth parameters according to leaf rank. At the sub-organ scale, successive serrations from same or different leaves also followed shared growth dynamics, suggesting that global and local leaf growth patterns are decoupled. Analysing mutants leaves with altered morphology highlighted the decorrelation between adult shapes and morphogenetic trajectories, thus stressing the benefits of our approach in identifying determinants and critical timepoints during organ morphogenesis.

Plant phenotyping relevance

静的データから器官の発生時系列と成長軌跡を再構成するモデルベース手法が研究の中心であり、葉の形態形成・成長という植物表現型を推定している。

Code and data availability

The paper's data availability statement explicitly provides three paper-specific public assets: a new version of the MorphoLeaf phenotyping application, COPASI and R scripts for temporal calibration parameter estimation, and the leaf datasets used in the analysis, each with a public URL.