Nature produces dozens of leaf shapes, some simple, some marvelously complex, but almost all sculpted by a set of genes called the NAM/CUC genes, according to a new research published in the latest issue of Science. (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Nature produces dozens of leaf shapes, some simple, some marvelously complex, but almost all sculpted by a set of genes called the NAM/CUC genes, according to a new research published in the latest issue of Science.

    In seed plants, each plant leaf emerges from a single pool of precursor cells, but leaves can range from a simple oval to a complex formation of subdivisions and leaflets.

    French scientist Thomas Blein and colleagues in Europe looked at the molecular controls guiding leaf determined that the NAM/CUC genes play an important role in establishing the boundaries of growing leaflets, across a variety of plants.

    They showed that the localized expression of the NAM/CUC genes in a specific domain of the leaflet precursors was required for the formation of subdivided leaves.

    By combining gene silencing and mutant analyses in four distantly related eudicot species, they discovered that reducing the function of NAM/CUC boundary genes leads to a suppression of all marginal outgrowths and to fewer and fused leaflets.