Capturing variation in floral shape: a virtual3D based morphospace for Pelargonium.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Variation in floral shapes has long fascinated biologists and its modelling enables testing of evolutionary hypotheses. Recent comparative studies that explore floral shape have largely ignored 3D floral shape. We propose quantifying floral shape by using geometric morphometrics on a virtual3D model reconstructed from 2D photographical data and demonstrate its performance in capturing shape variation.

Methods

This approach offers unique benefits to complement established imaging techniques (i) by enabling adequate coverage of the potential morphospace of large and diverse flowering-plant clades; (ii) by circumventing asynchronicity in anthesis of different floral parts; and (iii) by incorporating variation in copy number of floral organs within structures. We demo

SUBMITTER: van de Kerke SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7130111 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature