IRNASA - CSIC, Salamanca, Apartado 257, 37080 Salamanca, Spain.
J Plant Physiol. 2012 Sep 15;169(14):1359-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jplph.2012.05.019. Epub 2012 Jul 17.
Seed shape in the model legumes Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula is described. Based in previous work with Arabidopsis, the outline of the longitudinal sections of seeds is compared with a cardioid curve. L. japonicus seeds adjust well to an unmodified cardioid, whereas accurate adjustment in M. truncatula is obtained by the simple transformation of scaling the vertical axis by a factor equal to the Golden Ratio. Adjustments of seed shape measurements with simple geometrical forms are essential tools for the statistical analysis of variations in seed shape under different conditions or in mutants. The efficiency of the adjustment to a cardioid in the model plants suggests that seed morphology may be related to genome complexity. Seeds of ethylene insensitive mutants present differences in size and shape as well as altered responses to imbibition. The biological implication and meaning of these relationships are discussed.
描述了模式豆科植物百脉根（Lotus japonicus）和蒺藜苜蓿（Medicago truncatula）的种子形状。基于先前对拟南芥的研究，种子的纵向截面轮廓与心脏线曲线进行了比较。百脉根种子很好地适应了未经修饰的心形曲线，而蒺藜苜蓿则通过简单地将垂直轴按黄金比例缩放来实现精确调整。使用简单的几何形状对种子形状测量值进行调整是统计分析不同条件下或突变体中种子形状变化的重要工具。模式植物对心脏线的调整效率表明，种子形态可能与基因组复杂性有关。乙烯不敏感突变体的种子在大小和形状上存在差异，并且对吸胀的反应也发生了改变。讨论了这些关系的生物学意义和含义。
