Genetic control of compound leaf development in the mungbean ( L.).

Many studies suggest that there are distinct regulatory processes controlling compound leaf development in different clades of legumes. Loss of function of the () orthologs results in a reduction of leaf complexity to different degrees in inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC) and non-IRLC species. To further understand the role of orthologs and the molecular mechanism in compound leaf development in non-IRLC plants, we studied leaf development in () mutant, a classical mutant of mungbean ( L.), which showed a complete conversion of compound leaves into simple leaves. Our analysis revealed that encoded the mungbean LFY ortholog (VrLFY) and played a significant role in leaf development. In situ RNA hybridization results showed that -like genes were expressed in compound leaf primordia in mungbean. Furthermore, increased leaflet number in () mutants was demonstrated to depend on the function of and genes in mungbean. Our results suggested that is a key factor coordinating distinct processes in the control of compound leaf development in mungbean and its related non-IRLC legumes.