Three perennial tropical Panicum species were grown under ambient and elevated (900 ppm) carbon dioxide concentrations in especially designed microclimate chambers. The study aimed to investigate the influence of high carbon dioxide concentrations on morphology/anatomy with physiological change among three closely related species possessing distinctly different photosynthetic pathways. The anatomy of the leaf was investigated using light microscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and graphics image analysis. A suitable schedule for fixation, dehydration and embedding of leaf specimens for both forms of microscopy was developed. The anatomy of the species investigated did not change qualitatively, but there were detectable changes in leaf thickness and tissue proportions of the epidermis, mesophyll and thickened tissues (sclerenchyma, bundle sheath, vascular elements) that differed with species. This study is also relevant to the investigation of the evolution of C4, although species, and the progression involved in plants with characteristics intermediate between those of C3 and C4 species. These intermediate species have been mainly characterized by CO2 exchange and biochemical analysis, but they also display anatomical characteristics in between those of C3 and C4 plants. The evolutionary progression of the C3 to C4 species remains unsolved, although current studies indicate that the evolutionary step was from the C3 plant to the C4. Thus the intermediate C3/C4 plants may not be intermediate in an evolutionary sense and they could be seen as a simple hybridization between a C3 plant and C4 plant. In most of the parameters measured the C3/C4 P. decipiens resembled either the C3 P. tricanthum or the C4 P. antidotale. It may therefore be likened to a physiological chimera rather than to a true intermediate form / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/181931 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Tipping, Claudia, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Faculty of Science, Technology and Agriculture, School of Horticulture |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_FSTA_HOR_Tipping_C.xml |
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