TY - JOUR

T1 - Image-Based Quantitative Analysis of Epidermal Morphology in Wild Potato Leaves

AU - Zubairova, Ulyana S.

AU - Fomin, Ivan N.

AU - Koloshina, Kristina A.

AU - Barchuk, Alisa I.

AU - Erst, Tatyana V.

AU - Chalaya, Nadezhda A.

AU - Gerasimova, Sophia V.

AU - Doroshkov, Alexey V.

PY - 2024/11/1

Y1 - 2024/11/1

N2 - The epidermal leaf patterns of plants exhibit remarkable diversity in cell shapes, sizes, and arrangements, driven by environmental interactions that lead to significant adaptive changes even among closely related species. The Solanaceae family, known for its high diversity of adaptive epidermal structures, has traditionally been studied using qualitative phenotypic descriptions. To advance this, we developed a workflow combining multi-scale computer vision, image processing, and data analysis to extract digital descriptors for leaf epidermal cell morphology. Applied to nine wild potato species, this workflow quantified key morphological parameters, identifying descriptors for trichomes, stomata, and pavement cells, and revealing interdependencies among these traits. Principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted two main axes, accounting for 45% and 21% of variance, corresponding to features such as guard cell shape, trichome length, stomatal density, and trichome density. These axes aligned well with the historical and geographical origins of the species, separating southern from Central American species, and forming distinct clusters for monophyletic groups. This workflow thus establishes a quantitative foundation for investigating leaf epidermal cell morphology within phylogenetic and geographic contexts.

AB - The epidermal leaf patterns of plants exhibit remarkable diversity in cell shapes, sizes, and arrangements, driven by environmental interactions that lead to significant adaptive changes even among closely related species. The Solanaceae family, known for its high diversity of adaptive epidermal structures, has traditionally been studied using qualitative phenotypic descriptions. To advance this, we developed a workflow combining multi-scale computer vision, image processing, and data analysis to extract digital descriptors for leaf epidermal cell morphology. Applied to nine wild potato species, this workflow quantified key morphological parameters, identifying descriptors for trichomes, stomata, and pavement cells, and revealing interdependencies among these traits. Principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted two main axes, accounting for 45% and 21% of variance, corresponding to features such as guard cell shape, trichome length, stomatal density, and trichome density. These axes aligned well with the historical and geographical origins of the species, separating southern from Central American species, and forming distinct clusters for monophyletic groups. This workflow thus establishes a quantitative foundation for investigating leaf epidermal cell morphology within phylogenetic and geographic contexts.

KW - Solanum

KW - leaf epidermal pattern

KW - pavement cells

KW - plant microscopy

KW - plant phenology

KW - plant phenotyping

KW - stomata

KW - trichomes

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85208461513&origin=inward&txGid=914d523dddb3bdad56dd7b15a1ad045e

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e3460418-b236-33ff-a75f-409f4eb3687b/

U2 - 10.3390/plants13213084

DO - 10.3390/plants13213084

M3 - Article

C2 - 39520002

VL - 13

JO - Plants

JF - Plants

SN - 2223-7747

IS - 21

M1 - 3084

ER -