Growth and photosynthetic down-regulation in Coffea arabica in response to restricted root volume
Cláudio P. Ronchi A , Fábio M. DaMatta A C , Karine D. Batista A , Gustavo A. B. K. Moraes A , Marcelo E. Loureiro A and Carlos Ducatti BA Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36570-000 Viçosa, MG, Brasil.
B Centro de Isótopos Estáveis Ambientais, Departamento de Física e Biofísica, Universidade Estadual Paulista, 18608-000 Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
C Corresponding author. Email: fdamatta@ufv.br
Functional Plant Biology 33(11) 1013-1023 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP06147
Submitted: 13 June 2006 Accepted: 16 August 2006 Published: 1 November 2006
Abstract
Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plants were grown in small (3-L), medium (10-L) and large (24-L) pots for 115 or 165 d after transplanting (DAT), which allowed different degrees of root restriction. Effects of altered source : sink ratio were evaluated in order to explore possible stomatal and non-stomatal mechanisms of photosynthetic down-regulation. Increasing root restriction brought about large and general reductions in plant growth associated with a rising root : shoot ratio. Treatments did not affect leaf water potential or leaf nutrient status, with the exception of N content, which dropped significantly with increasing root restriction even though an adequate N supply was available. Photosynthesis was severely reduced when plants were grown in small pots; this was largely associated with non-stomatal factors, such as decreased Rubisco activity. At 165 DAT contents of hexose, sucrose, and amino acids decreased in plants grown in smaller pots, while those of starch and hexose-P increased in plants grown in smaller pots. Photosynthetic rates were negatively correlated with the ratio of hexose to free amino acids, but not with hexose content. Activities of acid invertase, sucrose synthase, sucrose-P synthase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, starch phosphorylase, glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase, PPi : fructose-6-P 1-phosphotransferase and NADP : glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase all decreased with severe root restriction. Glycerate-3-P : Pi and glucose-6-P : fructose-6-P ratios decreased accordingly. Photosynthetic down-regulation was unlikely to have been associated directly with an end-product limitation, but rather with decreases in Rubisco. Such a down-regulation was largely a result of N deficiency caused by growing coffee plants in small pots.
Keywords: coffee, nitrogen deficiency, pot size, Rubisco, sink regulation.
Acknowledgments
Research fellowships (FM DaMatta, ME Loureiro) and scholarships (CP Ronchi, KD Batista and GABK Moraes) granted by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) are gratefully acknowledged.
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