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Related Concept Videos

Light Acquisition02:16

Light Acquisition

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the evolution of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors with contaminant elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and nutrients.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 8, 2026

LeafJ: An ImageJ Plugin for Semi-automated Leaf Shape Measurement
08:14

LeafJ: An ImageJ Plugin for Semi-automated Leaf Shape Measurement

Published on: January 21, 2013

How a leaf gets its shape.

Jihyun Moon1, Sarah Hake

  • 1Plant Gene Expression Center, USDA-ARS, University of California, Berkeley, 800 Buchanan St, Albany, CA 94710, USA.

Current Opinion in Plant Biology
|September 28, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Leaf development is regulated by KNOX gene activity, which must be suppressed in initial leaf cells. Proper leaf formation and shaping depend on precise control of these genes and other factors during growth.

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Area of Science:

  • Plant developmental biology
  • Molecular genetics
  • Plant morphology

Background:

  • Leaves originate from meristematic cells.
  • KNOX gene expression in leaf initials prevents leaf formation.
  • Leaf shape is determined by growth along three axes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing leaf initiation and development.
  • To understand the roles of specific genes and pathways in leaf shaping.
  • To compare conserved genetic networks in monocots and dicots.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of gene expression patterns during leaf initiation.
  • Investigating the function of transcription factors (MYB, LOB) and auxin.
  • Studying the roles of HD-ZIPIII, KANADI, and small RNA pathways in leaf axis determination.

Main Results:

  • Down-regulation of KNOX genes is an early marker of leaf initiation.
  • Polar auxin activity, MYB, and LOB factors exclude KNOX from initiating leaves.
  • KNOX proteins influence proximal-distal axis development, while other factors regulate other axes.

Conclusions:

  • Precise regulation of KNOX genes is crucial for leaf initiation.
  • Multiple genetic pathways coordinate leaf development and shape.
  • Despite conserved networks, leaf morphology varies between plant groups.