The fascinating diversity of leaf shape in nature

Have you been fascinated by the huge diversity of leaf shapes that exist in nature? And did you also observe that in some plant species within the same individual, aging leaves show increased morphological complexity compared to juvenile leaves? Is there a possible connection between such age-dependent variation in leaf shape and physiological events that occur during plant aging? There are many more questions that I would like to answer during this journey as a CEPLAS researcher. To know more about this exciting project, watch this video!

 

 

 

 

German subtitles can be selected on our YouTube channel! 

Planter’s Punch

Under the heading Planter’s Punch we present each month one special aspect of the CEPLAS research programme. All contributions are prepared by our early career researchers.

About the author

Ranju Chutia is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in the group of Prof. Dr. Miltos Tsiantis. Her research focuses on understanding the physiological and metabolic consequences of diversification of leaf margin complexity. Before joining CEPLAS, she earned her Ph.D. at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle, where she manipulated malate biosynthesis and exudation in Arabidopsis thaliana and studied the response of these plants under phosphate deficiency.