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Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures

Maintaining the integrity of the cuticular transpiration barrier even at elevated temperatures is of vital importance especially for hot-desert plants. Currently, the temperature dependence of the leaf cuticular water permeability and its relationship with the chemistry of the cuticles are not known...

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Autores principales: Schuster, Ann-Christin, Burghardt, Markus, Alfarhan, Ahmed, Bueno, Amauri, Hedrich, Rainer, Leide, Jana, Thomas, Jacob, Riederer, Markus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27154622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw027
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author Schuster, Ann-Christin
Burghardt, Markus
Alfarhan, Ahmed
Bueno, Amauri
Hedrich, Rainer
Leide, Jana
Thomas, Jacob
Riederer, Markus
author_facet Schuster, Ann-Christin
Burghardt, Markus
Alfarhan, Ahmed
Bueno, Amauri
Hedrich, Rainer
Leide, Jana
Thomas, Jacob
Riederer, Markus
author_sort Schuster, Ann-Christin
collection PubMed
description Maintaining the integrity of the cuticular transpiration barrier even at elevated temperatures is of vital importance especially for hot-desert plants. Currently, the temperature dependence of the leaf cuticular water permeability and its relationship with the chemistry of the cuticles are not known for a single desert plant. This study investigates whether (i) the cuticular permeability of a desert plant is lower than that of species from non-desert habitats, (ii) the temperature-dependent increase of permeability is less pronounced than in those species and (iii) whether the susceptibility of the cuticular permeability barrier to high temperatures is related to the amounts or properties of the cutin or the cuticular waxes. We test these questions with Rhazya stricta using the minimum leaf water vapour conductance (g(min)) as a proxy for cuticular water permeability. g(min) of R. stricta (5.41 × 10(−5) m s(−1) at 25 °C) is in the upper range of all existing data for woody species from various non-desert habitats. At the same time, in R. stricta, the effect of temperature (15–50 °C) on g(min) (2.4-fold) is lower than in all other species (up to 12-fold). Rhazya stricta is also special since the temperature dependence of g(min) does not become steeper above a certain transition temperature. For identifying the chemical and physical foundation of this phenomenon, the amounts and the compositions of cuticular waxes and cutin were determined. The leaf cuticular wax (251.4 μg cm(−2)) is mainly composed of pentacyclic triterpenoids (85.2% of total wax) while long-chain aliphatics contribute only 3.4%. In comparison with many other species, the triterpenoid-to-cutin ratio of R. stricta (0.63) is high. We propose that the triterpenoids deposited within the cutin matrix restrict the thermal expansion of the polymer and, thus, prevent thermal damage to the highly ordered aliphatic wax barrier even at high temperatures.
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spelling pubmed-49259232016-07-01 Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures Schuster, Ann-Christin Burghardt, Markus Alfarhan, Ahmed Bueno, Amauri Hedrich, Rainer Leide, Jana Thomas, Jacob Riederer, Markus AoB Plants Research Article Maintaining the integrity of the cuticular transpiration barrier even at elevated temperatures is of vital importance especially for hot-desert plants. Currently, the temperature dependence of the leaf cuticular water permeability and its relationship with the chemistry of the cuticles are not known for a single desert plant. This study investigates whether (i) the cuticular permeability of a desert plant is lower than that of species from non-desert habitats, (ii) the temperature-dependent increase of permeability is less pronounced than in those species and (iii) whether the susceptibility of the cuticular permeability barrier to high temperatures is related to the amounts or properties of the cutin or the cuticular waxes. We test these questions with Rhazya stricta using the minimum leaf water vapour conductance (g(min)) as a proxy for cuticular water permeability. g(min) of R. stricta (5.41 × 10(−5) m s(−1) at 25 °C) is in the upper range of all existing data for woody species from various non-desert habitats. At the same time, in R. stricta, the effect of temperature (15–50 °C) on g(min) (2.4-fold) is lower than in all other species (up to 12-fold). Rhazya stricta is also special since the temperature dependence of g(min) does not become steeper above a certain transition temperature. For identifying the chemical and physical foundation of this phenomenon, the amounts and the compositions of cuticular waxes and cutin were determined. The leaf cuticular wax (251.4 μg cm(−2)) is mainly composed of pentacyclic triterpenoids (85.2% of total wax) while long-chain aliphatics contribute only 3.4%. In comparison with many other species, the triterpenoid-to-cutin ratio of R. stricta (0.63) is high. We propose that the triterpenoids deposited within the cutin matrix restrict the thermal expansion of the polymer and, thus, prevent thermal damage to the highly ordered aliphatic wax barrier even at high temperatures. Oxford University Press 2016-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4925923/ /pubmed/27154622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw027 Text en Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schuster, Ann-Christin
Burghardt, Markus
Alfarhan, Ahmed
Bueno, Amauri
Hedrich, Rainer
Leide, Jana
Thomas, Jacob
Riederer, Markus
Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title_full Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title_fullStr Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title_short Effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
title_sort effectiveness of cuticular transpiration barriers in a desert plant at controlling water loss at high temperatures
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27154622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw027
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