Polyploidy and the evolution of phenotypic integration: Network analysis reveals relationships among anatomy, morphology, and physiology.

Premise: Most traits are polygenic and most genes are pleiotropic, resulting in complex, integrated phenotypes. Polyploidy presents an excellent opportunity to explore the evolution of phenotypic integration as entire genomes are duplicated, allowing for new associations among traits and potentially leading to enhanced or reduced phenotypic integration. Despite the multivariate nature of phenotypic evolution, studies often rely on simplistic bivariate correlations that cannot accurately represent complex phenotypes or data reduction techniques that can obscure specific trait relationships.

Variation within laminae: Semi-automated methods for quantifying leaf venation using phenoVein.

Premise: Physiological processes may vary within leaf laminae; however, the accompanying heterogeneity in leaf venation is rarely investigated because its quantification can be time consuming. Here we introduce accelerated protocols using existing software to increase sample throughput and ask whether laminae venation varies among three crop types and four subspecies of .

Methods: FAA (formaldehyde, glacial acetic acid, and ethanol)-fixed samples were stored in ethanol.