JXB Advance Access originally published online on April 24, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(8):1987-1996; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern060
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© 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.
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RESEARCH PAPER |
The peripheral xylem of grapevine (Vitis vinifera). 1. Structural integrity in post-veraison berries
1Section of Plant Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95166, USA
2Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
3Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kashackel{at}ucdavis.edu
During the development of many fleshy fruits, water flow becomes progressively more phloemic and less xylemic. In grape (Vitis vinifera L.), the current hypothesis to explain this change is that the tracheary elements of the peripheral xylem break as a result of berry growth, rendering the xylem structurally discontinuous and hence non-functional. Recent work, however, has shown via apoplastic dye movement through the xylem of post-veraison berries that the xylem should remain structurally intact throughout berry development. To corroborate this, peripheral xylem structure in developing Chardonnay berries was investigated via maceration and plastic sectioning. Macerations revealed that, contrary to current belief, the xylem was comprised mostly of vessels with few tracheids. In cross-section, the tracheary elements of the vascular bundles formed almost parallel radial files, with later formed elements toward the epidermis and earlier formed elements toward the centre of the berry. Most tracheary elements remained intact throughout berry maturation, consistent with recent reports of vascular dye movement in post-veraison berries.
Key words: Tracheary element, vasculature, vessel, water movement
Received 7 September 2007; Revised 11 December 2007 Accepted 4 February 2008