A mutational analysis of leaf morphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

As a contribution to a better understanding of the developmental processes that are specific to plants, we have begun a genetic analysis of leaf ontogeny in the model system Arabidopsis thaliana by performing a large-scale screening for mutants with abnormal leaves. After screening 46,159 M2 individuals, arising from 5770 M1 parental seeds exposed to EMS, we isolated 1926 M2 putative leaf mutants, 853 of which yielded viable M3 inbred progeny. Mutant phenotypes were transmitted with complete penetrance and small variations in expressivity in 255 lines. Most of them were inherited as recessive monogenic traits, belonging to 94 complementation groups, which suggests that we did not reach saturation of the genome. We discuss the nature of the processes presumably perturbed in the phenotypic classes defined among our mutants.