Natural Genetic Variation for Growth and Development Revealed by High-Throughput Phenotyping in Arabidopsis thaliana

Leaf growth and development determines a plant’s capacity for photosynthesis and carbon fixation. These morphological traits are the integration of genetic and environmental factors through time. Yet fine dissection of the developmental genetic basis of leaf expansion throughout a growing season is difficult, due to the complexity of the trait and the need for real time measurement. In this study, we developed a time-lapse image analysis approach, which traces leaf expansion under seasonal light variation. Three growth traits, rosette leaf area, circular area, and their ratio as compactness, were measured and normalized on a linear timescale to control for developmental heterogeneity. We found high heritability for all growth traits that changed over time. Our study highlights a cost-effective, high-throughput phenotyping approach that facilitates the dissection of genetic basis of plant shoot growth and development under dynamic environmental conditions.