PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ryan Andres
AU  - Viktoriya Coneva
AU  - Margaret H. Frank
AU  - John R. Tuttle
AU  - Sang-Won Han
AU  - Luis Fernando Samayoa
AU  - Baljinder Kaur
AU  - Linglong Zhu
AU  - Hui Fang
AU  - Daryl Bowman
AU  - Marcela Rojas-Pierce
AU  - Candace H. Haigler
AU  - Don C. Jones
AU  - James B. Holland
AU  - Daniel H. Chitwood
AU  - Vasu Kuraparthy
TI  - Modifications to a <em>LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY-1</em> gene are responsible for the major leaf shapes of Upland cotton (<em>Gossypium hirsutum</em> L.)
AID  - 10.1101/062612
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 062612
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/07/062612.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/07/062612.full
AB  - Manipulation of cotton canopy architecture offers the potential to maximize yield while minimizing inputs. Here we show that the major leaf shapes of cotton at the L-D1 locus are controlled by a Late Meristem Identity1-D1b (GhLMI1-D1b) gene which encodes a HD-Zip transcription factor. Okra leaf GhLMI1-D1b has a 133-bp tandem duplication in the promoter, correlated with elevated expression, while an 8-bp deletion in the third exon of normal leaf GhLMI1-D1b causes a frame-shifted and truncated coding sequence. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of GhLMI1-D1b in an okra variety was sufficient to induce normal leaf formation. An intermediate leaf shape allele, sub-okra, lacks both the promoter duplication and the exonic deletion. Our results indicate that sub-okra is the ancestral leaf shape of tetraploid cotton and normal is a derived mutant allele that came to predominate and define the leaf shape of cultivated cotton.