Determination of growth and maintenance coefficients by calorespirometry
Sannali Matheson A D , Derek J. Ellingson A , V. Wallace McCarlie A , Bruce N. Smith B , Richard S. Criddle A , Laurence Rodier C and Lee D. Hansen AA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
B Department of Plant and Animal Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 USA.
C Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et Genie Chimique, Universite Blaise Pascal, F-63177 Aubiere Cedex, France.
D Corresponding author; email: Lee_Hansen@BYU.edu
Functional Plant Biology 31(9) 929-939 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP03029
Submitted: 7 February 2003 Accepted: 3 June 2004 Published: 27 September 2004
Abstract
This study describes a calorespirometric method for determining the coefficients of the correlation of specific respiration and growth rates. To validate the calorespirometric method, coefficients obtained from calorespirometric data are compared with coefficients obtained from mass and elongation growth rates measured at three temperatures on oat (Avena sativa L.) shoots. Calorespirometric measurements were also made on leaf tissue of varying age from Verbascum thapsus L., Convolvulus arvensis L., and Helianthus tuberosus Nutt. Measurements on A. sativa, C. arvensis and H. tuberosus at several temperatures show maintenance coefficients generally increase with temperature, but, in disagreement with accepted theory, growth coefficients for C. arvensis and A. sativa vary with temperature. A comparison of rates expressed as intensive and extensive quantities showed that the decline in specific respiration and growth rates with age is caused by dilution-by-growth, not down-regulation of respiration rate by reduced demand. The ratio of heat rate to CO2 rate increases with leaf age, and, for fully mature leaves, exceeds the maximum possible value for carbohydrates. This shows that the catabolic substrate may vary with leaf age in immature leaves and cannot be assumed to consist only of carbohydrates in mature leaves. Dilution-by-growth, substrate variation, and inseparability of the variables in the growth-maintenance model all complicate physiological interpretation of the slope and intercept of plots of specific respiration rates v. specific growth rates.
Keywords: Avena sativa, calorimetry, Convolvulus arvensis, Helianthus tuberosa, models, respiration, Verbascum thapsus.
Acknowledgments
S Matheson thanks the BYU Office of Research and Creative Activities for a grant in support of this research. L D Hansen thanks CNRS for support through the Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et Génie Chimique of the Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France for time to perform the initial studies on verbascum that led to this work, the Forestry Research Laboratory of the University of Melbourne and the Botany Department of the University of Western Australia for time to write the manuscript, and BYU for continued support of this work.
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