Cantil - a new organ or a morphological oddity?

Abstract

Cantil is reported as a new-found organ specific to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that is prominent only in short-day-grown wild-type accessions or long-day-grown genetic mutants with delayed vegetative to reproductive transition. Here, we show that cantils (previously known as nubbins) arise as one of the many phenotypic consequences of aneuploidy resulting from chromosome dosage imbalances in Arabidopsis polyaneuploids despite normal reproductive transition in long-day photoperiods. Without a demonstrated function or adaptive significance, we view cantils as a morphological oddity rather than a separate organ, and as a manifestation of physiological perturbations triggered by genetic and environmental factors. We also note a striking phenotypic resemblance between 'cantil' and 'gynophore', a floral morphological structure that is naturally present in the allopolyploid Arabidopsis suecica.