PLANTS usually grow flat leaves to maximise the amount of sunlight they capture for photosynthesis. And now we know how.
Unchecked, a leaf is more likely to be curved than flat. The leaf will buckle if cells near the edge grow more rapidly than those in the centre, and if the opposite happens the leaf becomes cup-shaped.
Now it appears that the snapdragon uses a gene called CIN to ensure that cells in all regions of the leaf grow at a uniform rate, making it grow flat.
Enrico Coen of the John Innes Centre in Norwich in eastern England and…
