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Plant Biol (Stuttg) 2003; 5(6): 642-650
DOI: 10.1055/s-2003-44691
Original Paper

Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Expansion Kinematics are an Intrinsic Property of Leaf Development and are Scaled from Cell to Leaf Level at Different Nutrient Availabilities

A. Walter 1 , 2 , U. Roggatz 1 , 3 , U. Schurr 1 , 2
  • 1Botanical Institute, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 360, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2Present address: Forschungszentrum Jülich, ICG III (Phytosphäre), Jülich, Germany
  • 3Present address: Botanical Institute, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
02 February 2004 (online)

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Abstract

Leaves of Nicotiana tabacum L. and Ricinus communis L. develop with a wide range of different final sizes due to leaf position and nutrient availability. The aim of this study was to investigate, on different organizational levels of leaf growth, which parameters are affected by external nutrient availability and which parameters are not affected and might thus be intrinsic, general patterns of growth that govern plant architecture. We found that leaf size and final cell size was larger with higher external nutrient availability, and that hexose concentrations in N. tabacum were lower with higher nutrient availability. Despite these differences, several dynamic parameters of leaf development were not affected by the nutrient treatment. Leaves of all sizes within a species exhibited the same relationship between relative leaf growth rate and relative leaf area (RLA), which is defined as the ratio of momentary and final leaf area. External nutrient availability did not affect chlorophyll concentration per parenchyma cell, which increased linearly with leaf development. Leaves of identical RLA exhibited identical cell density patterns within their interveinal tissue layers. This indicates a close connection between the kinematics of cell expansion and RLA and, hence, reveals that kinematics are an intrinsic property of growing leaves that can be scaled from the cell to the leaf level.

Key words

Developmental index - leaf growth - Nicotiana tabacum - nutrient availability - pattern formation - Ricinus communis.

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A. Walter

Forschungszentrum Jülich
ICG III (Phytosphäre)

52425 Jülich

Germany

Email: a.walter@fz-juelich.de

Section Editor: M. Riederer

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