Branching: Relation to Genetics

• Studies (Bickel, 2000) have shown a direct relationship between branching patterns in plants and common ancestry.

• Branching is believed to be homeotic and varies very little between generations.

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CHRIS

Degree of similarity directly correlates to evolutionary distances (greater similarity=closer related)

Homeotic genes are master genes and control clusters of characteristics(body symmetry, for example) Therefore, a change to a homeotic gene represents a major change to the plant.