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JXB Advance Access originally published online on October 3, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(14):3987-3995; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern238
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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. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Differences between water permeability of astomatous and stomatous cuticular membranes: effects of air humidity in two species of contrasting drought-resistance strategy

Jana Karbulková1,*, Lukas Schreiber2, Petr Macek1,3 and Jirí Santrucek1,4

1Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovská 31, 37005, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic
2Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
3Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, 37982, Trebon, Czech Republic
4Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Biology Centre ASCR, Branisovská 31, 37005, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: karbulkovaj{at}seznam.cz

Cuticular water permeabilities of adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces and their dependence on relative air humidity (RH) applied in long-term and short-term regimes have been analysed for Hedera helix, native in a temperate climate, and Zamioculcas zamiifolia, native in subtropical regions. The water permeability of cuticular membranes (CM) isolated from the adaxial (astomatous) and abaxial (stomatous) leaf sides was measured using a method which allowed the separation of water diffusion through the remnants of the original stomatal pores from water diffusion through the solid cuticle. The long-term effects of low (20–40%) or high (60–80%) RH applied during plant growth and leaf ontogeny (‘growth RH’) and the short-term effects of applying 2% or 100% RH while measuring permeability (‘measurement RH’) were investigated. With both species, water permeability of the solid stomatous CM was significantly higher than the permeability of the astomatous CM. Adaxial cuticles of plants grown in humid air were more permeable to water than those from dry air. The adaxial CM of the drought-tolerant H. helix was more permeable and more sensitive to growth RH than the adaxial CM of Z. zamiifolia, a species avoiding water stress. However, permeability of the solid abaxial CM was similar in both species and independent of growth RH. The lack of a humidity response in the abaxial CM is attributed to a higher degree of cuticular hydration resulting from stomatal transpiration. The ecophysiological significance of higher permeability of the solid stomatous CM compared to the astomatous CM is discussed.

Key words: Cuticular permeability, Hedera helix, leaf cuticle, pores, relative humidity, stomatal conductance, Zamioculcas zamiifolia

Received 19 May 2008; Revised 26 July 2008 Accepted 1 September 2008


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