Morphological variability in leaves of Chinese wild Vitis species

Abstract

Abstract China is one of the major origination for Vitis species, especially Chinese wild Vitis species. However, the leaf shape diversity among Chinese wild Vitis species remains unclear. Digital morphometric analysis was used to study the morphological variability in leaves of 59 Chinese wild grape accessions. Leaves were scanned and images were analyzed using normalized Elliptic Fourier Descriptors (EFD) and principal component analysis. The ampelometric traits of these leaves revealed a high degree of diversity within Chinese wild Vitis species. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first three principal components accounted for 71% of the variation. Elliptic Fourier Descriptors and Generalised Procruste Analysis (GPA) were used to provide a global analysis of leaf outlines and lobe positioning and to describe differences in relative vein positions, respectively. A dendrogram was constructed based on the shape traits, in which almost all of the individuals were clearly distinguished. These findings suggest that digital morphometrics is a powerful tool for assessing leaf shape variations among grape species and would be of great use for the conservation and utilization of Chinese wild Vitis species.