29 research outputs found
The Evolutionary Basis of Naturally Diverse Rice Leaves Anatomy
Rice contains genetically and ecologically diverse wild and cultivated species that show a
wide variation in plant and leaf architecture. A systematic characterization of leaf anatomy
is essential in understanding the dynamics behind such diversity. Therefore, leaf anatomies
of 24 Oryza species spanning 11 genetically diverse rice genomes were studied in both lateral
and longitudinal directions and possible evolutionary trends were examined. A significant
inter-species variation in mesophyll cells, bundle sheath cells, and vein structure was
observed, suggesting precise genetic control over these major rice leaf anatomical traits.
Cellular dimensions, measured along three growth axes, were further combined proportionately
to construct three-dimensional (3D) leaf anatomy models to compare the relative size
and orientation of the major cell types present in a fully expanded leaf. A reconstruction of
the ancestral leaf state revealed that the following are the major characteristics of recently
evolved rice species: fewer veins, larger and laterally elongated mesophyll cells, with an
increase in total mesophyll area and in bundle sheath cell number. A huge diversity in leaf
anatomy within wild and domesticated rice species has been portrayed in this study, on an
evolutionary context, predicting a two-pronged evolutionary pathway leading to the âsativa
leaf typeâ that we see today in domesticated species
Investigating the microstructure of plant leaves in 3D with lab-based X-ray Computed Tomography
Background
Leaf cellular architecture plays an important role in setting limits for carbon assimilation and, thus, photosynthetic performance. However, the low density, fine structure, and sensitivity to desiccation of plant tissue has presented challenges to its quantification. Classical methods of tissue fixation and embedding prior to 2D microscopy of sections is both laborious and susceptible to artefacts that can skew the values obtained. Here we report an image analysis pipeline that provides quantitative descriptors of plant leaf intercellular airspace using lab-based X-ray Computed Tomography (microCT). We demonstrate successful visualisation and quantification of differences in leaf intercellular airspace in 3D for a range of species (including both dicots and monocots) and provide a comparison with a standard 2D analysis of leaf sections.
Results
We used the microCT image pipeline to obtain estimates of leaf porosity and mesophyll exposed surface area (Smes) for three dicot species (Arabidopsis, tomato and pea) and three monocot grasses (barley, oat and rice). The imaging pipeline consisted of (1) a masking operation to remove the background airspace surrounding the leaf, (2) segmentation by an automated threshold in ImageJ and then (3) quantification of the extracted pores using the ImageJ âAnalyze Particlesâ tool. Arabidopsis had the highest porosity and lowest Smes for the dicot species whereas barley had the highest porosity and the highest Smes for the grass species. Comparison of porosity and Smes estimates from 3D microCT analysis and 2D analysis of sections indicates that both methods provide a comparable estimate of porosity but the 2D method may underestimate Smes by almost 50%. A deeper study of porosity revealed similarities and differences in the asymmetric distribution of airspace between the species analysed.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate the utility of high resolution imaging of leaf intercellular airspace networks by lab-based microCT and provide quantitative data on descriptors of leaf cellular architecture. They indicate there is a range of porosity and Smes values in different species and that there is not a simple relationship between these parameters, suggesting the importance of cell size, shape and packing in the determination of cellular parameters proposed to influence leaf photosynthetic performance