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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Is mesophyll conductance to CO2 in leaves of three Eucalyptus species sensitive to short-term changes of irradiance under ambient as well as low O2?

Cyril Douthe A B C , Erwin Dreyer A B D , Oliver Brendel A B and Charles R. Warren C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A INRA, Unité Mixte de Recherches 1147 ‘Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières’, F 54280 Champenoux, France.

B Université de Lorraine, Unité Mixte de Recherches 1147 ‘Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières’, Faculté des Sciences, F 54500 Vandoeuvre, France.

C University of Sydney, School of Biological Sciences, Heydon-Laurence Building, A08, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: dreyer@nancy.inra.fr

Functional Plant Biology 39(5) 435-448 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP11190
Submitted: 25 August 2011  Accepted: 26 March 2012   Published: 11 May 2012

Abstract

Mesophyll conductance to CO2 (g m) limits the diffusion of CO2 to the sites of carboxylation, and may respond rapidly (within minutes) to abiotic factors. Using three Eucalyptus species, we tested the rapid response of g m to irradiance under 21% and 1% O2. We used simultaneous measurements of leaf gas exchange and discrimination against 13CO2 with a tuneable diode laser absorption spectrometer. Measurements under 1% O2 were used to limit uncertainties due to 13C–12C fractionation occurring during photorespiration. Switching irradiance from 600 to 200 µmol m–2 s–1 led to a ≈60% decrease of g m within minutes in all species under both 21% O2 and 1% O2. The g m response to irradiance is unlikely to be a computation artefact since using different values for the parameters of the discrimination model changed the absolute values of g m but did not affect the relative response to irradiance. Simulations showed that possible rapid changes of any parameter were unable to explain the observed variations of g m with irradiance, except for13C–12C fractionation during carboxylation (b), which, in turn, is dependent on the fraction of leaf C assimilated by phospho-enol pyruvate carboxylase (PEPc) (β). g m apparently increased by ≈30% when O2 was switched from 21% to 1% O2. Again, possible changes of β with O2 could explain this apparent g m response to O2. Nevertheless, large irradiance or O2-induced changes in β would be required to fully explain the observed changes in g m, reinforcing the hypothesis that g m is responsive to irradiance and possibly also to O2.

Additional keywords: 13C discrimination, photorespiration, photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, tuneable diode laser absorption spectrometry.


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