Phylogeny and meristem ontogeny from five Solanaceae species representing a quantitative range of inflorescence complexity. (A) Phylogeny of S. lycopersicum (Sl, domesticated tomato), S. peruvianum (Spe, wild tomato species), S. prinophyllum (Spr, forest nightshade), N. benthamiana (Nb, tobacco), and C. annuum (Ca, pepper) estimated by the Orthologous MAtrix (OMA) pipeline, with distances in PAM units (Dessimoz et al. 2005; Roth et al. 2008). (B) Stereoscope images of the Middle Vegetative Meristem (MVM), Transition Meristem (TM), Floral Meristem (FM), and inflorescence from the five species arranged from most complex (top) to least complex (bottom) inflorescence architecture. Days after germination (DAG) and leaf number (L) at point of harvest are indicated. Dashed lines mark incisions for microdissection of meristems for RNA-seq transcriptome analysis. Average number of flowers produced (±SD) by the mature inflorescence is shown in the inflorescence frame. White scale bars represent 100 µm. Staging for meristem collection was based on the plastochron index and a time scale based on DAG to flowering (Supplemental Figs. S1, S2; Supplemental Table S2). Reference images of meristem stages for all species except S. prinohyllum and C. annuum were adapted from MacAlister et al. (2012) and Park et al. (2012).
