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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Intraspecific variation in leaf growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum) under Australian Grain Free Air CO2 Enrichment (AGFACE): is it regulated through carbon and/or nitrogen supply?

Chamindathee L. Thilakarathne A B , Sabine Tausz-Posch A , Karen Cane C , Robert M. Norton D , Glenn J. Fitzgerald C , Michael Tausz A and Saman Seneweera A E F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Water Street, Creswick, Vic. 3363, Australia.

B Central Research Station, Department of Export Agriculture, Matale, Sri Lanka.

C Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Horsham, Vic. 3400, Australia.

D International Plant Nutrition Institute, Horsham, Vic. 3400, Australia.

E Centre for Systems Biology, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

F Corresponding author. Email: saman.seneweera@usq.edu.au

Functional Plant Biology 42(3) 299-308 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP14125
Submitted: 28 April 2014  Accepted: 13 October 2014   Published: 4 December 2014

Abstract

Underlying physiological mechanisms of intraspecific variation in growth response to elevated CO2 concentration [CO2] were investigated using two spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars: Yitpi and H45. Leaf blade elongation rate (LER), leaf carbon (C), nitrogen (N) in the expanding leaf blade (ELB, sink) and photosynthesis (A) and C and N status in the last fully expanded leaf blade (LFELB, source) were measured. Plants were grown at ambient [CO2] (~384 µmol mol–1) and elevated [CO2] (~550 µmol mol–1) in the Australian Grains Free Air CO2 Enrichment facility. Elevated [CO2] increased leaf area and total dry mass production, respectively, by 42 and 53% for Yitpi compared with 2 and 13% for H45. Elevated [CO2] also stimulated the LER by 36% for Yitpi compared with 5% for H45. Yitpi showed a 99% increase in A at elevated [CO2] but no A stimulation was found for H45. There was a strong correlation (r2 = 0.807) between LER of the ELB and soluble carbohydrate concentration in LFELB. In ELB, the highest spatial N concentration was observed in the cell division zone, where N concentrations were 67.3 and 60.6 mg g–1 for Yitpi compared with 51.1 and 39.2 mg g–1 for H45 at ambient and elevated [CO2]. In contrast, C concentration increased only in the cell division and cell expansion zone of the ELB of Yitpi. These findings suggest that C supply from the source (LFELB) is cultivar dependent and well correlated with LER, leaf area expansion and whole-plant growth response to elevated [CO2].

Additional keywords: diurnal regulation of LER, elevated [CO2], gas exchange, growth analysis, leaf blade elongation rate.


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