The Importance of Cell Size in the Water Relations of Plants

Cutler, J. M.; Rains, D. W.; Loomis, R. S.

doi:10.1111/j.1399-3054.1977.tb04068.x

Cited by 245 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The apoplastic water content is considered a sort of reservoir that plants turn to in cases of excessive dehydration. In addition, a high content of apoplastic water is a feature shared by all plants that have adapted to dry climates (Cutler et al 1977). In contrast to the stressed N60 and N110 plants, the stressed N14 plants did not show osmotic adjustment, since spt and were similar for stressed and well-watered plants and so these plants did not develop the lower w necessary to adapt to the drought conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Moderate water stress affects tomato leaf water relations in dependence on the nitrogen supply

García¹,

Marcelis²,

Garcı́a-Sánchez³

et al. 2007

Biologia plant.

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The responses of water relations, stomatal conductance (g s ) and growth parameters of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Royesta) plants to nitrogen fertilisation and drought were studied. The plants were subjected to a long-term, moderate and progressive water stress by adding 80 % of the water evapotranspirated by the plant the preceding day. Well-watered plants received 100 % of the water evapotranspirated. Two weeks before starting the drought period, the plants were fertilised with Hoagland´s solution with 14, 60 and 110 mM NO 3 -(N14, N60 and N110, respectively). Plants of the N110 treatment had the highest leaf area. However, g s was higher for N60 plants and lower for N110 plants. At the end of the drought period, N60 plants showed the lowest values of water potential ( w ) and osmotic potential ( s ), and the highest values of pressure potential ( p ). N60 plants showed the highest s at maximum p and the highest bulk modulus of elasticity.Additional key words: Lycopersicon esculentum, osmotic adjustment, stomatal conductance, water potential.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Moderate water stress affects tomato leaf water relations in dependence on the nitrogen supply

García¹,

Marcelis²,

Garcı́a-Sánchez³

et al. 2007

Biologia plant.

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“…Within limitations, this seems to be a widely utilized strategy. There are numerous examples of plasticity in SD within species, with changes readily induced through exposure of developing leaves to changed atmospheric CO 2 concentrations (Woodward et al, 2002;Hetherington and Woodward, 2003), or drought (Cutter et al, 1977;Quarrie and Jones, 1977), or the drought stress hormone abscisic acid (Bradford et al, 1983;Franks and Farquhar, 2001). However, in the case of increasing SD to obtain higher operating g s , there are practical limitations relating to space (maximum number of stomata of a given dimension per unit leaf area) and guard cell biochemistry (if the entire epidermis is guard cells, where will the guard cells import potassium from?…”

Section: Discussion How To Meet the Need For Higher Stomatal Conductancementioning

confidence: 99%

The Mechanical Diversity of Stomata and Its Significance in Gas-Exchange Control

2006

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Given that stomatal movement is ultimately a mechanical process and that stomata are morphologically and mechanically diverse, we explored the influence of stomatal mechanical diversity on leaf gas exchange and considered some of the constraints. Mechanical measurements were conducted on the guard cells of four different species exhibiting different stomatal morphologies, including three variants on the classical ''kidney'' form and one ''dumb-bell'' type; this information, together with gas-exchange measurements, was used to model and compare their respective operational characteristics. Based on evidence from scanning electron microscope images of cryo-sectioned leaves that were sampled under full sun and high humidity and from pressure probe measurements of the stomatal aperture versus guard cell turgor relationship at maximum and zero epidermal turgor, it was concluded that maximum stomatal apertures (and maximum leaf diffusive conductance) could not be obtained in at least one of the species (the grass Triticum aestivum) without a substantial reduction in subsidiary cell osmotic (and hence turgor) pressure during stomatal opening to overcome the large mechanical advantage of subsidiary cells. A mechanism for this is proposed, with a corollary being greatly accelerated stomatal opening and closure. Gas-exchange measurements on T. aestivum revealed the capability of very rapid stomatal movements, which may be explained by the unique morphology and mechanics of its dumb-bell-shaped stomata coupled with ''see-sawing'' of osmotic and turgor pressure between guard and subsidiary cells during stomatal opening or closure. Such properties might underlie the success of grasses.Although the morphological diversity of stomata is widely documented (Haberlandt, 1884;Meidner and Mansfield, 1968;Allaway and Milthorpe, 1976;Ziegler, 1987;Willmer and Fricker, 1996), little is known of how this translates into functional diversity and what the environmental context of this might be. Throughout the 400 million year (Ma) history of vascular plants on land, long-term decline in atmospheric CO 2 concentration and shifts in prevailing moisture patterns have placed selective pressures on stomata to increase epidermal conductance to CO 2 diffusion and also to increase transpiration efficiency (CO 2 fixed per unit water transpired). This posed two separate problems, upon which the combination of mutation and time might have worked to give rise to the current diversity of stomatal form and function. The first centered on the simple geometric practicalities of fitting enough functional stomatal units per unit leaf surface area to meet the desired CO 2 flux as atmospheric CO 2 concentration changed, or to service an increase in photosynthetic capacity. The second centered on the performance characteristics of any new stomatal structure or configuration in relation to transpiration efficiency. Here, by examining the mechanical and performance characteristics of stomata in four different species, we explore the nature of these two problem...

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“…This drought tolerance may be due to structural adjustments such as smaller cell size (Cutler et al, 1977), or other adaptations to prevent mechanical injury and development of desiccation resistant protoplasm (Brown, 1977).…”

Section: Chapter III Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%