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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 53, No. 376, pp. 1935-1940, September 1, 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Decoupling of light intensity effects on the growth and development of C3 and C4 weed species through sucrose supplementation

Received 3 January 2002; Accepted 20 May 2002

Sultan H. Begna1, Lianne M. Dwyer2, Daniel Cloutier3, Louis Assemat4, Antonio DiTommaso5, Xiaomin Zhou1, B. Prithiviraj1 and Donald L. Smith6,1

1 Plant Science Department, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3V9
2 Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, KW Neatby Building, 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, Canada
3 Institute de Malherbologie, CP 222, Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada, H9X 3R9
4 Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Laboratoire de Malherbologie, BV 1540-21034, Dijon, Cedex, France
5 Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

6 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +1 514 398 7897. E-mail: dsmith{at}macdonald.mcgill.ca

Light availability has a profound effect on plant growth and development. One of the ways to study the effects of light intensity on plant growth and development without the confounding problem of photosynthate availability is sucrose injection/supplementation. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of light levels (0% and 75% shade) and sucrose injection (distilled water or 150 g sucrose l–1) on three weed species: redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L., C4), lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L., C3) and velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti Medic., C3). The average total sucrose uptake was 7.6 and 5.9 g per plant for 0% and 75% shading, respectively, representing 47% of the average total weed dry weight. Plants injected with sucrose had greater dry weights and shoot-to-root ratios under both light levels. In spite of sucrose supplementation the reduction in dry matter due to shading was greater for roots and reproductive structures than vegetative shoot tissues, indicating light level regulation of morphological changes resulting in changed C allocation that are independent of photosynthate availability. Dry weights of plants injected with sucrose under 75% shading were not different from distilled water-injected unshaded plants. However, both sucrose-injected and control plants, regardless of their photosynthetic pathways, underwent similar changes in allocation of dry matter and morphology due to shading, suggesting that these effects are strictly due to light intensity and not related to photosynthate availability.

Key words: Key words: C3 weeds, C4 weeds, light levels, plant development, sucrose supplementation.


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