{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T08:59:53Z","timestamp":1790758793554,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"am","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/pages\/standard-publication-reuse-rights"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"Abstract<\/jats:title>\n \n Background<\/jats:title>\n Harper\u2019s (1977) framing of the plant as a population of semi-autonomous modules remains foundational but predates genomic tools able to test the genetic identity of individual modules. Two further literatures address within-plant heterogeneity largely in parallel: a genetic-mosaicism literature (Gill et al., 1995; Reusch et al., 2021) showing that somatic mutations accumulate within plants, and a subindividual-variation literature (Herrera, 2009; Sobral and Sampedro, 2022) documenting functional consequences of within-plant phenotypic and epigenetic diversity.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Scope<\/jats:title>\n We bridge these bodies of work within a single lineage-based framework. We define a plant subindividual as a cell-lineage-derived module with a traceable developmental history and partial autonomy, whose differentiation may be expressed at phenotypic, epigenetic and\/or genetic levels; detectable somatic genetic divergence is not required for subindividual status. Drawing on whole-genome and methylome studies of long-lived trees, shrubs and clonal crops, we assess the strength of support at each level, distinguishing evidence for the existence of within-plant heterogeneity from evidence for its effects on module function. In the studies reviewed here, a causal link between somatic variants in signalling genes and module-specific physiological responses remains to be established. We then propose a distinct scaling hypothesis: for responses requiring rapid or pathway-specific signalling, increasing transport distance and vascular sectoriality may raise the relative contribution of local regulation\u2014a testable account of why module autonomy may scale with plant size.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n Reframing plant modules as lineage-derived subindividuals yields testable predictions comparing genetic, epigenetic and phenotypic differentiation across life histories\u2014from mainly phenotypic and epigenetic differentiation in short-lived herbs to detectable genetic mosaicism in long-lived trees and clonal crops. The framework connects three lines of research and proposes a testable scaling hypothesis for module autonomy.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1093\/aob\/mcag312","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T11:46:01Z","timestamp":1790682361000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["From morphological modules to lineage-derived subindividuals: integrating phenotypic, epigenetic and genetic differentiation in plants"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0443-0406","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Naibin","family":"Duan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shandong International Cooperation Laboratory for Agricultural Germplasm Resource Innovation , Jinan 250100 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yumin","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shandong International Cooperation Laboratory for Agricultural Germplasm Resource Innovation , Jinan 250100 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Suping","family":"Kong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Vegetables, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Huang Huai Protected Horticulture Engineering\/Shandong Key Laboratory of Bulk Open-field Vegetable Breeding , Jinan 250100 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zezhou","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Vegetables, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences\/Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Huang Huai Protected Horticulture Engineering\/Shandong Key Laboratory of Bulk Open-field Vegetable Breeding , Jinan 250100 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinguo","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shandong International Cooperation Laboratory for Agricultural Germplasm Resource Innovation , Jinan 250100 ,","place":["China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"container-title":["Annals of Botany"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/aob\/advance-article-pdf\/doi\/10.1093\/aob\/mcag312\/71499277\/mcag312.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"am","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/aob\/advance-article-pdf\/doi\/10.1093\/aob\/mcag312\/71499277\/mcag312.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T08:13:46Z","timestamp":1790756026000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/aob\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/aob\/mcag312\/8851439"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/aob\/mcag312","relation":{},"ISSN":["1095-8290"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1095-8290","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"article-number":"mcag312"}}