Modifications to a LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY-1 Gene Are Responsible for the Major Leaf Shapes of Cotton

Leaf shape varies spectacularly among plants. Leaves are the primary source of photo-assimilate in crop plants and understanding the genetic basis of variation in leaf morphology is critical to improving agricultural productivity. Leaf shape played a unique role in cotton improvement, as breeders have selected for entire and lobed leaf morphs resulting from a single locus, okra (L-D₁), which is responsible for the major leaf shapes in cotton. The L-D₁ locus is not only of agricultural importance in cotton, but through pioneering chimeric and morphometric studies it has contributed to fundamental knowledge about leaf development. Here we show that an HD-Zip transcription factor homologous to the LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1 (LMI1) gene of Arabidopsis is the causal gene underlying the L-D₁ locus. The classical okra leaf shape allele has a133-bp tandem duplication in the promoter, correlated with elevated expression, while an 8-bp deletion in the third exon of the presumed wild-type normal allele causes a frame-shifted and truncated coding sequence. Our results indicate that sub-okra is the ancestral leaf shape of tetraploid cotton that gave rise to the okra allele and that normal is a derived mutant allele that came to predominate and define the leaf shape of cultivated cotton. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of the LMI1-like gene in an okra variety was sufficient to induce normal leaf formation. The developmental changes in leaves conferred by this gene are associated with a photosynthetic transcriptomic signature, substantiating its use by breeders to produce a superior cotton ideotype.