Analysis of Ipomoea (morning glory) leaf mutants

Ipomoea (morning glory) is the largest genus in the family Convolvulaceae. Cultivation of morning glory plants began in the late Edo period in Japan, and this horticultural success resulted in thousands of plants with varying floral displays. In addition to the different flower morphologies, leaf shape is highly variable within this family making it an ideal group in which to study leaf development. We selected four mutants that vary in lobe number and lobe depth: 1) Tokyo Standard (TKS1065; wild-type; 3 lobes), yellow maple (ym1018; 5 lobes), delicate maple (dlm620; 5 deep lobes), and maple willow (m646; simple leaf). These leaf mutants represent the range of leaf shapes found in this family. By using qualitative (microscopy) and quantitative (morphometric) techniques, the specific purpose of this study was to investigate leaf shape and vein homology among leaf mutants in the morning glory family. We found that veins were homologous across lobed species of Ipomoea.