Morphological Integration between Floral Petals for Sinnigia Speciosa

Abstract.

This study aims to examine the level of morphological integration for flower petals of Sinningia speciosa. Morphological integration refers to the tendency of illustrating correlation in shape variation between compartments. In this study, a zygomorphic S. speciosa was crossed with an actinomorphic S. speciosa. The second-generation flowers from the cross illustrate considerable shape variations, particularly in flower opening and dorsoventral asymmetry. The three-dimensional images of the flowers were acquired by using micro-computed tomography. Landmarks of the flowers were identified to describe the shapes of the petals. Subsequently, the level of morphological integration between the petal landmark sets were examined by using generalized Procrustes analysis and permutation tests. The tests indicated that dorsal and ventral petals were associated with a minimal level of integration and could be regarded as biological modules.