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JXB Advance Access originally published online on April 29, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(8):2221-2232; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern087
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© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

RESEARCH PAPER

Genetic variability for leaf growth rate and duration under water deficit in sunflower: analysis of responses at cell, organ, and plant level

Gustavo A. Pereyra-Irujo, Luciano Velázquez, Leandra Lechner and Luis A. N. Aguirrezábal*

Unidad Integrada Balcarce, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, CC 276, 7620 Balcarce, Argentina

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: laguirre{at}mdp.edu.ar

Plants under water deficit reduce leaf growth, thereby reducing transpiration rate at the expense of reduced photosynthesis. The objective of this work was to analyse the response of leaf growth to water deficit in several sunflower genotypes in order to identify and quantitatively describe sources of genetic variability for this trait that could be used to develop crop varieties adapted to specific scenarios. The genetic variability of the response of leaf growth to water deficit was assessed among 18 sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) inbred lines representing a broad range of genetic diversity. Plants were subjected to long-term, constant-level, water-deficit treatments, and the response to water deficit quantified by means of growth models at cell-, leaf-, and plant-scale. Significant variation among lines was found for the response of leaf expansion rate and of leaf growth duration, with an equal contribution of these responses to the variability in the reduction of leaf area. Increased leaf growth duration under water deficit is usually suggested to be caused by changes in the activity of cell-wall enzymes, but the present results suggest that the duration of epidermal cell division plays a key role in this response. Intrinsic genotypic responses of rate and duration at a cellular scale were linked to genotypic differences in whole-plant leaf area profile to water deficit. The results suggest that rate and duration responses are the result of different physiological mechanisms, and therefore capable of being combined to increase the variability in leaf area response to water deficit.

Key words: Cell division, leaf expansion, leaf growth duration, leaf growth rate, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), water deficit

Received 6 December 2007; Revised 3 March 2008 Revised 4 March 2008 Accepted 4 March 2008


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