Leaves of seed plants can be described as simple, where the leaf blade is entire, or dissected, where the blade is divided
into distinct leaflets. Both simple and dissected leaves are initiated at the flanks of a pluripotent structure termed the
shoot apical meristem (SAM). In simple-leafed species, expression of class I KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) proteins is confined
to the meristem while in many dissected leaf plants, including tomato, KNOX expression persists in leaf primordia. Elevation
of
KNOX expression in tomato leaves can result in increased leaflet number, indicating that tight regulation of
KNOX expression may help define the degree of leaf dissection in this species. To test this hypothesis and understand the mechanisms
controlling leaf dissection in tomato, we studied the
clausa (
clau) and
tripinnate (
tp) mutants both of which condition increased leaflet number phenotypes. We show that TRIPINNATE and CLAUSA act together, to
restrict the expression level and domain of the
KNOX genes
Tkn1 and
LeT6/Tkn2 during tomato leaf development. Because loss of CLAU or TP activity results in increased
KNOX expression predominantly on the adaxial (upper) leaf domain, our observations indicate that CLAU and TP may participate in
a domain-specific
KNOX repressive system that delimits the ability of the tomato leaf to generate leaflets.
Keywords
CLAUSA
-
KNOX genes - Leaf development -
PHANTASTICA
- Tomato -
TRIPINNATE
Sophie Jasinski and Hardip Kaur have contributed equally to this work.