Genetic Basis of Carnivorous Leaf Development.

Arpita Agrawal,Jeremy Dkhar,Ashwani Pareek

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.825289

Abstract

Plant carnivory is often manifested as dramatic changes in the structure and morphology of the leaf. These changes appear to begin early in leaf development. For example, the development of the Sarracenia purpurea leaf primordium is associated with the formation of an adaxial ridge, whose growth along with that of the leaf margin resulted in a hollow structure that later developed into a pitcher. In Nepenthes khasiana, pitcher formation occurs during the initial stages of leaf development, although this has not been shown at the primordial stage. The formation of the Utricularia gibba trap resulted from the growth of the dome-shaped primordium in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. Recent research has begun to unfold the genetic basis of the development of the carnivorous leaf. We review these findings and discuss them in relation to the flat-shaped leaves of the model plant Arabidopsis.

Highlights

Carnivorous plants develop a set of morphological features termed “carnivorous syndrome”, which facilitate the capture and digestion of attracted prey (Pavlovicet al., 2007)
A few years later, the developing leaf transcriptome of N. khasiana was reported, hinting at the possible link between leaf polarity genes and pitcher formation (Dkhar and Pareek, 2019). Another outstanding study from the Coen lab provided insights on the formation of the U. gibba trap (Whitewoods et al, 2020). These studies have begun to reveal the molecular mechanisms underpinning the development of the carnivorous leaf, shaped either as a cup or a pitcher
Arabidopsis mutants of the HD-ZIPIII genes viz. PHB, PHV and REV display leaf phenotypes similar to those seen in pitcher plants, Nepenthes

Summary

Introduction

Carnivorous plants develop a set of morphological features termed “carnivorous syndrome”, which facilitate the capture and digestion of attracted prey (Pavlovicet al., 2007). These studies have begun to reveal the molecular mechanisms underpinning the development of the carnivorous leaf, shaped either as a cup (in U. gibba) or a pitcher (in S. purpurea). These innovative leaf morphologies appear to have evolved independently through changes in the existing genetic mechanisms governing flat-shaped leaf development (e.g., Arabidopsis, Figure 2A) (Lee et al, 2019).

Results

Conclusion