Developmental or physiological plasticity refers to the ability of an organism to adjust its phenotypes in response to environmental variations. Such an ability is especially important for plants because they cannot escape from non-optimal growth conditions. We previously demonstrated that the REDUCED OF COMPLEXITY (RCO) locus relay temperature parameters into developmental programs to adapt leaf morphology to surrounding climatic conditions in Capsella species. Our results also indicated that polymorphisms at this locus affect the relationship between leaf morphology and temperature, highlighting this locus as an ideal target for the selection of temperature-induced plastic response that is adapted to the fluctuation in local climates. This project will analyse the partitioning of genetic diversity at the RCO locus within Capsella species (about 280 genomes) and among environments to determine its contribution to leaf shape evolution and local adaptation. It will further unravel the molecular mechanisms controlling leaf shape plasticity through a combination of transcriptomics and quantitative genetics (GWAS).