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. 2023 Nov 3:14:1260302.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1260302. eCollection 2023.

Influence of flowering on the anatomical structure, chemical components and carbohydrate metabolism of Bambusa tuldoides culms at different ages

Jiaxin Liu  1   2 , Yufang Wu  1   2 , Li Zhou  1   2 , Anmian Zhang  1 , Sushuang Wang  1   2 , Yi Liu  1   2 , Dejia Yang  1   2 , Shuguang Wang  1   2   3
Affiliations

Influence of flowering on the anatomical structure, chemical components and carbohydrate metabolism of Bambusa tuldoides culms at different ages

Jiaxin Liu et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Bamboo forests, which have come to occupy large areas in recent years, naturally undergo the process of blooming. However, bamboo culms and rhizomes degenerate after the plants bloom, resulting in widespread loss of raw materials. Systematic research on the properties and physiology of bamboo culms after flowering is lacking, and whether flowering bamboo culms could be used as raw materials in industry is unclear. In this paper, we compared and measured the fiber morphology, chemical components, and sugar metabolism indexes of non-flowering and flowering Bambusa tuldoides culms at different ages. The results showed that the fibers in the middle internodes of both non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms had the longest length. The fibers completed their elongation within 1 year, but the fiber walls were continually deposited with age. The levels of the chemical components in the nonflowering culms also continually increased with age. The nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) content and sugar metabolism indexes showed the highest levels in the 2-year culms and then declined in the 3-year culms. Compared to young culms that had not yet flowered, the 3-month-old and 1-year-old flowering culms had a significant decrease in the fiber length and tangential diameter, and their holocellulose and lignin levels also decreased, while the levels of ash, SiO2, 1% NaOH extractives, and benzene-ethanol extractives increased. A correlation analysis showed that sugar catabolism was accelerated in the flowering cluster, which could lead to "starvation death" in bamboo and which had a significant negative impact on the anatomical and chemical properties of the bamboo culms. Generally, the flowering bamboo culms had shorter fibers, higher levels of extractives and ash, and lower holocellulose content, which indicated that bamboo flowering has an adverse effect on the application of such components in the production of pulp, in papermaking, and in other processing and utilization activities. This study revealed the physiological changes in flowering B. tuldoides culms and provided a theoretical basis to inform the utilization of culms in this species.

Keywords: Bambusa tuldoides; anatomical structure; chemical properties; flowering culms; sugar metabolism; utilization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The difference in the growth of non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms. (A) Non-flowering B. tuldoides culms. Bar=30cm. (B, C) Flowering B. tuldoides culms. Bar=20cm. (D, E) Morphology and growth of spikelets. Bar=3cm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Morphology in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms of different ages. (A) Changes of the diameter at breast height (DBH) of culms. (B) Changes of the diameter at culm bottom (DBC) of culms. Data were presented as mean ± SD (n=3). Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with age in the non-flowering culms, and different uppercase indicated differences with age in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. * indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.05, and ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Vascular bundle morphology of B. tuldoides culms after the staining with safranin O and alcian blue. Each internode sample was cut into 15 cross-sections continuously for the observations. (A–C) Inner, middle, and outer zones in the 3-month-old culms. Bar=200 μm. (D–F) Inner, middle, and outer zones in the 1-year-old culms. Bar=200 μm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Changes of the fiber characteristics in the B. tuldoides culms with portions and age. Each determination was repeated three times and a total of 50 fibers were measured each time. (A–F) Changes of the fiber characteristics in the non-flowering culms with portions and age. (A) Length. (B) Tangential diameter. (C) L/T. (D) Wall thickness. (E) Lumen diameter. (F) W/Lu. (G–L) Changes of the fiber characteristics in the flowering culms with portions and age. (G) Length. (H) Tangential diameter. (I) L/T. (J) Wall thickness. (K) Lumen diameter. (L) W/Lu. Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences of different portions in the same age at the level of p<0.05.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Changes of the fiber characteristics in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms with age. Each determination was repeated three times and a total of 150 fibers were measured each time. (A) Length. (B) Tangential diameter. (C) L/T. (D) Wall thickness. (E) Lumen diameter. (F) W/Lu. Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with age in the non-flowering culms and different uppercase indicated differences with age in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Changes of moisture content in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms of different ages. Data were presented as mean ± SD (n=3). Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with age in the non-flowering culms, and different uppercase indicated differences with age in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. * indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.05, and ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Changes of the major chemical components in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms of different ages. Data were presented as mean ± SD (n=3). (A) Ash content. (B) SiO2 content. (C) 1% NaOH extractives content. (D) Benzene-ethanol extractives content (E) Holocellulose content. (F) Lignin content. Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with ages in the non-flowering culms and different uppercase indicated differences with ages in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. * indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.05, and ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Changes of the carbohydrate storage in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms of different ages. Data were presented as mean ± SD (n=3). (A) Starch content. (B) Soluble sugar content. (C) NSC content. Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with age in the non-flowering culms and different uppercase indicated differences with age in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. * indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.05, and ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Changes of sugar-metabolizing enzymatic activities in the non-flowering and flowering B. tuldoides culms of different ages. Data were presented as mean ± SD (n=3). (A) AGPase activities. (B) SSS activities. (C) GBSS activities. (D) STP activities. (E) SAI activities. (F) CWI activities. (G) SUSY activities. Different lowercase letters indicated significant differences with age in the non-flowering culms and different uppercase indicated differences with age in the flowering culms at the level of p<0.05. * indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.05, and ** indicated significant difference at the level of p<0.01 between the non-flowering and flowering culms.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Distribution of starch grains in the upper part (internode 13) of 2-year-old B. tuldoides culms after the staining of PAS reaction. Each sample was cut into 15 cross-sections continuously for the observations. (A–C) Inner, middle, and outer zones of the non-flowering culms. Bar=200μm. (D–F) Inner, middle, and outer zones of the flowering culms. Bar=200μm.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Correlation analysis of physiological indexes in B. tuldoides of different ages. (A) Correlation analysis of physiological indexes in the non-flowering culms. (B) Correlation analysis of physiological indexes in the flowering culms. The darkness of the color indicated the ranking: the black circle marked the value of positive correlation, and the green circle marked the value of negative correlation. * indicated significant correlation at 0.05 level, ** indicated significant correlation at 0.01 level, and *** indicated significant correlation at 0.001 level.
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