Photosynthetic acclimation in the context of structural constraints to carbon export from leaves

Abstract

The potential role of foliar carbon export features in the acclimation of photosynthetic capacity to differences and changes in light environment was evaluated. These features included apoplastic vs. symplastic phloem loading, density of loading veins, plasmodesmatal frequency in intermediary cells, and the ratio of loading cells to sieve elements. In initial studies, three apoplastic loaders (spinach, pea, Arabidopsis thaliana) exhibited a completely flexible photosynthetic response to changing light conditions, while two symplastic loaders (pumpkin, Verbascum phoeniceum), although able to adjust to different long-term growth conditions, were more limited in their response when transferred from low (LL) to high (HL) light. This suggested that constraints imposed by the completely physical pathway of sugar export might act as a bottleneck in the export of carbon from LL-acclimated leaves of symplastic loaders. While both symplastic loaders exhibited variable loading vein densities (low in LL and high in HL), none of the three apoplastic loaders initially characterized exhibited such differences. However, an additional apoplastic species (tomato) exhibited similar differences in vein density during continuous growth in different light environments. Furthermore, in contrast to the other apoplastic loaders, photosynthetic acclimation in tomato was not complete following a transfer from LL to HL. This suggests that loading vein density and loading cells per sieve element, and thus apparent loading surface capacity, play a major role in the potential for photosynthetic acclimation to changes in light environment. Photosynthetic acclimation and vein density acclimation were also characterized in the slow-growing, sclerophytic evergreen Monstera deliciosa. This evergreen possessed a lower vein density during growth in LL compared to HL and exhibited a more severely limited potential for photosynthetic acclimation to increases in light environment than the rapidly-growing, mesophytic annuals.