Skip Navigation


JXB Advance Access originally published online on July 22, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(12):3317-3325; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern185
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
59/12/3317    most recent
ern185v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Xu, Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Xu, Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, G.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Xu, Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Responses of leaf stomatal density to water status and its relationship with photosynthesis in a grass

Zhenzhu Xu1 and Guangsheng Zhou1,2,*

1State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Haidian, Beijing 100093, PR China
2Institute of Atmospheric Environment, China Meteorological Administration, Shenyang 110016, PR China

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gszhou{at}ibcas.ac.cn

Responses of plant leaf stomatal conductance and photosynthesis to water deficit have been extensively reported; however, little is known concerning the relationships of stomatal density with regard to water status and gas exchange. The responses of stomatal density to leaf water status were determined, and correlation with specific leaf area (SLA) in a photosynthetic study of a perennial grass, Leymus chinensis, subjected to different soil moisture contents. Moderate water deficits had positive effects on stomatal number, but more severe deficits led to a reduction, described in a quadratic parabolic curve. The stomatal size obviously decreased with water deficit, and stomatal density was positively correlated with stomatal conductance (gs), net CO2 assimilation rate (An), and water use efficiency (WUE). A significantly negative correlation of SLA with stomatal density was also observed, suggesting that the balance between leaf area and its matter may be associated with the guard cell number. The present results indicate that high flexibilities in stomatal density and guard cell size will change in response to water status, and this process may be closely associated with photosynthesis and water use efficiency.

Key words: Gas exchange, guard cell size, photosynthesis, stomatal density, water stress, water use efficiency (WUE)

Received 25 April 2008; Accepted 23 June 2008


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ANN BOT (LOND)Home page
L. H. Fraser, A. Greenall, C. Carlyle, R. Turkington, and C. R. Friedman
Adaptive phenotypic plasticity of Pseudoroegneria spicata: response of stomatal density, leaf area and biomass to changes in water supply and increased temperature
Ann. Bot., March 1, 2009; 103(5): 769 - 775.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.