Developmental genetics of leaf formation in Lolium: 1. Basic Patterns of Leaf Development in L. Multiflorum and L. Perenne

Abstract

1. Repeated measurements on the growth of individual leaves in seedlings and young plants of ryegrass combined with dissections of the apex of the shoot and of very young leaves have shown that the basic pattern of leaf formation is very similar in Lolium multiflorum and L. perenne.2. The initial growth rate of a leaf primordium is low but increases suddenly at a point when the primordium is somewhat longer than the apex and about 1 mm. in length. After this transition, which I have called the unfolding of the leaf, the rate of elongation is faster and more or less linear until the leaf is nearly mature.3. The time of unfolding of a leaf is very closely associated with the time of maturity of the next older leaf on the same side of the apex. Thus a leaf ceases growth when the next younger leaf immediately above it starts elongating rapidly, though which is cause and which is effect is it not possible to say.4. This close relationship between duration of leaf elongation and rate of unfolding of successive leaves holds for both species in two seasons. It leads one to predict that selection for increased leaf size, in so far as it is a result of greater duration of leaf elongation, is likely to be accompanied by a slower rate of leaf appearance, and conversely that selection for rate of leaf appearance is likely to result in smaller leaves.