Two kinds of asymmetry in spring wheat leaf blade

Abstract

The aim of the study was to find differences in the shape and asymmetry of the leaf blade of spring wheat grown at different dose of fertilizer. 52 landmarks were applied to the digitized images of the leaf blade and using the methods of geometric morphometrics the shape configuration was aligned. The components of the shape and asymmetry were estimated using Procrustes distances. Two types of asymmetry – fluctuating and directional were evaluated in Procrustes analysis of variance. The Procrustes distance showed a difference in the shape of the leaves of plants grown on mineral fertilizers in compare to the control (0.003; p <0.001). Visually, the width of the leaf blade of the plants formed with fertilization was bigger than in the control leaves. With an increase in the fertilizer dose, the Goodall criterion value increased from 30.0 to 46.2 (directional asymmetry; p <0.0001) and from 3.8 to 23.02 (fluctuating asymmetry; p <0.0001). There was no change in overall asymmetry of the experimental leaves, as Procrustean distance showed no difference between the centers of the sets in experimental variables (p ≥0.05). Thus, an increase in the dose of mineral-organic fertilizer influenced both the shape and the asymmetry including the structure of the bilateral asymmetry of spring wheat leaf blades, influencing the homeostasis of plant development.