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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Whole-plant respiration and its temperature sensitivity during progressive carbon starvation

Martijn Slot A B D and Kaoru Kitajima A B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

B Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.

C Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.

D Corresponding author. Email: martijnslot78@gmail.com

Functional Plant Biology 42(6) 579-588 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP14329
Submitted: 28 November 2014  Accepted: 24 February 2015   Published: 23 March 2015

Abstract

Plant respiration plays a critical role in the C balance of plants. Respiration is highly temperature sensitive and small temperature-induced increases in whole-plant respiration could change the C balance of plants that operate close to their light-compensation points from positive to negative. Nonstructural carbohydrates are thought to play an important role in controlling respiration and its temperature sensitivity, but this role has not been studied at the whole-plant level. We measured respiration of whole Ardisia crenata Sims. seedlings and tested the hypothesis that darkness-induced C starvation would decrease the temperature sensitivity of whole-plant respiration. Compared with control plants, sugar and starch concentrations in darkened plants declined over time in all organs. Similarly, whole-plant respiration decreased. However, the temperature sensitivity of whole-plant respiration, expressed as the proportional increase in respiration per 10°C warming (Q10), increased with progressive C starvation. We hypothesise that growth respiration was suppressed in darkened plants and that whole-plant respiration represented maintenance respiration almost exclusively, which is more temperature sensitive. Alternatively, changes in the respiratory substrate during C starvation or increased involvement of alternative oxidase pathway respiration may explain the increase in Q10. Carbohydrates are important for respiration but it appears that even in C-starved A. crenata plants, carbohydrate availability does not limit respiration during short-term warming.

Additional keywords: Ardisia crenata, carbohydrate storage, global warming, plant carbon balance, respiratory substrate depletion.


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