Abstract
The plant vascular system facilitates the exchange of sugars, water, and other molecules between leaves and the rest of the plant and, therefore, represents a structural interface connecting multiple physiological processes. A role of whole-plant demand for sugar in regulating photosynthesis had been illuminated previously, and long-distance transport of sugar wasn’t thought to limit photosynthetic capacity. However, I investigated possible limitations imposed at the interface of sugar export and water movement within the photosynthesizing leaf. I identified considerable plasticity of foliar minor veins and leaf function under contrasting temperature and light environments as well as significant differences in the degree of this plasticity between natural populations of the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana from Sweden and Italy and between the commonly used Col-0 ecotype and a tocopherol-deficient mutant line of the same genetic background. Growth at cool temperatures resulted in leaves with greater photosynthetic capacity and sugar-exporting infrastructure in all genotypes, with the extent of these responses being greater in the Swedish ecotype relative to the Italian ecotype. Such upregulation presumably counteracts reduced catalytic activities of proteins involved in both photosynthesis and sugar export from leaves, the rate of which must be maintained to avoid foliar sugar accumulation and potential repression of photosynthetic genes. In turn, transpiration, vein density, and water-importing infrastructure were enhanced in the leaves of all genotypes when grown under hot temperatures, with the extent of some responses being more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant compared to the Col-0 wild-type. These features were also more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant compared to Col-0 in a naturally lit glasshouse with intermittently high temperatures, suggesting that redox networks are integrated with other signaling networks in targeting the foliar vasculature. Growth under high versus low light resulted in leaves with greater photosynthetic capacities and transpiration rates as well as augmented water-importing and sugar-exporting infrastructure, with similar ecotypic variation as that observed in response to growth temperature. These findings demonstrate a critical and novel role for adjustments in leaf vascular architecture in maintaining photosynthetic productivity and whole-plant function across different temperature and light regimes.
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Claims 13
Claim · model-written summary
Arabidopsis showed considerable plasticity of foliar minor veins and leaf function under contrasting temperature and light environments.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thalianat0 - Outcome
- plasticity of foliar minor veins and leaf functione0
- Qualifier
- contrasting temperature and light environmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“I identified considerable plasticity of foliar minor veins and leaf function under contrasting temperature and light environments”
Claim · model-written summary
The degree of plasticity differed significantly between natural populations of Arabidopsis from Sweden and Italy.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Material
- natural populationse1
- Outcome
- degree of this plasticitye0
- Setting
- Sweden and Italye1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“significant differences in the degree of this plasticity”
e1“natural populations of the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana from Sweden and Italy”
Claim · model-written summary
The degree of plasticity differed significantly between the Col-0 ecotype and a tocopherol-deficient mutant line.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Material
- Col-0 ecotypee1
- Outcome
- degree of this plasticitye0
- Comparator
- tocopherol-deficient mutant linee1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“significant differences in the degree of this plasticity”
e1“between the commonly used Col-0 ecotype and a tocopherol-deficient mutant line of the same genetic background”
Claim · model-written summary
Growth at cool temperatures gave leaves with greater photosynthetic capacity and sugar-exporting infrastructure in all genotypes.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- Growth at cool temperaturese0
- Outcome
- photosynthetic capacity and sugar-exporting infrastructuree0
- Direction
- greatere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“Growth at cool temperatures resulted in leaves with greater photosynthetic capacity and sugar-exporting infrastructure in all genotypes”
Claim · model-written summary
The responses to cool growth temperature were greater in the Swedish ecotype than in the Italian ecotype.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Material
- Swedish ecotypee0
- Outcome
- extent of these responsese0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Comparator
- Italian ecotypee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“with the extent of these responses being greater in the Swedish ecotype relative to the Italian ecotype”
Claim · model-written summary
Transpiration, vein density and water-importing infrastructure were enhanced in leaves of all genotypes grown under hot temperatures.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- grown under hot temperaturese0
- Outcome
- transpiration, vein density, and water-importing infrastructuree0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“transpiration, vein density, and water-importing infrastructure were enhanced in the leaves of all genotypes when grown under hot temperatures”
Claim · model-written summary
Some responses to hot temperature were more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant than in Col-0.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Material
- tocopherol-deficient mutante0
- Outcome
- extent of some responsese0
- Direction
- more exaggeratede0
- Comparator
- Col-0 wild-typee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“with the extent of some responses being more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant compared to the Col-0 wild-type”
Claim · model-written summary
The same features were also more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant than in Col-0 in a naturally lit glasshouse with intermittently high temperatures.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Material
- tocopherol-deficient mutante0
- Outcome
- These featurese0
- Direction
- more exaggeratede0
- Comparator
- Col-0e0
- Setting
- a naturally lit glasshouse with intermittently high temperaturese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“These features were also more exaggerated in the tocopherol-deficient mutant compared to Col-0 in a naturally lit glasshouse with intermittently high temperatures”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest that redox networks are integrated with other signaling networks in targeting the foliar vasculature.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Outcome
- targeting the foliar vasculaturee0
- Qualifier
- redox networks are integrated with other signaling networkse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“suggesting that redox networks are integrated with other signaling networks in targeting the foliar vasculature”
Claim · model-written summary
Growth under high versus low light gave leaves with greater photosynthetic capacities and transpiration rates.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- Growth under high versus low lighte0
- Outcome
- photosynthetic capacities and transpiration ratese0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Comparator
- low lighte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“Growth under high versus low light resulted in leaves with greater photosynthetic capacities and transpiration rates”
Claim · model-written summary
Growth under high versus low light augmented water-importing and sugar-exporting infrastructure.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- Growth under high versus low lighte0
- Outcome
- water-importing and sugar-exporting infrastructuree1
- Direction
- augmentede1
- Comparator
- low lighte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“Growth under high versus low light”
e1“augmented water-importing and sugar-exporting infrastructure”
Claim · model-written summary
Ecotypic variation in the light responses was similar to that observed in response to growth temperature.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Outcome
- ecotypic variatione0
- Qualifier
- similar ecotypic variation as that observed in response to growth temperaturee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“similar ecotypic variation as that observed in response to growth temperature”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that adjustments in leaf vascular architecture play a critical role in maintaining photosynthetic productivity and whole-plant function across temperature and light regimes.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianat0
- Treatment
- different temperature and light regimese0
- Outcome
- photosynthetic productivity and whole-plant functione0
- Qualifier
- adjustments in leaf vascular architecturee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Arabidopsis thaliana”
e0“These findings demonstrate a critical and novel role for adjustments in leaf vascular architecture in maintaining photosynthetic productivity and whole-plant function across different temperature and light regimes”
The same questions in other papers
light · physiology: photosynthesis · Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress)Positive and negative results
10 papers in the same direction as this paper · 18 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- negative
- negative
26 papers more in this group
See all 30 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.