Track 1-01: Understanding Stress Physiology of Grasses and Forages
Description
Soil salinity is a growing constraint to crop and forage production worldwide and has driven the quest for salt-tolerant germplasm. Perennial forage grasses are regarded as choice alternative for the productive use of saline areas as well as for mitigating salinity in these areas (Ridley and Pannell 2005). Panicum coloratum L. is a C4 perennial grass native to tropical Africa, adapted to a wide range of rainfall conditions which makes it attractive as a forage for semiarid areas (Jones 1985). In forage grasses, yield is directly related to leaf area expansion and duration and the purpose of this work was to analyse the underlying cellular causes for reduced leaf growth under saline conditions. Kinematic studies on the spatial distribution of cell lengths, along with information on leaf elongation rates, can be used to calculate the contribution of cell expansion and division to leaf growth (Silk et al. 1989) and provide a first insight to the causes of stress-associated reductions in leaf expansion (Rymen et al. 2010). While kinematic analyses have been performed in several grass species, including perennial grasses (Volenec and Nelson 1981, Schnyder et al. 1987, Fiorani et al. 2000), to determine, for example, the association between leaf growth, meristematic activity and cell expansion, however, the contribution of alterations in cell division and expansion to salt-associated reductions in leaf size of a perennial forage grass had not been explored before.
Included in
Cellular Causes for Leaf Elongation Reductions under Salinity in Panicum coloratum
Soil salinity is a growing constraint to crop and forage production worldwide and has driven the quest for salt-tolerant germplasm. Perennial forage grasses are regarded as choice alternative for the productive use of saline areas as well as for mitigating salinity in these areas (Ridley and Pannell 2005). Panicum coloratum L. is a C4 perennial grass native to tropical Africa, adapted to a wide range of rainfall conditions which makes it attractive as a forage for semiarid areas (Jones 1985). In forage grasses, yield is directly related to leaf area expansion and duration and the purpose of this work was to analyse the underlying cellular causes for reduced leaf growth under saline conditions. Kinematic studies on the spatial distribution of cell lengths, along with information on leaf elongation rates, can be used to calculate the contribution of cell expansion and division to leaf growth (Silk et al. 1989) and provide a first insight to the causes of stress-associated reductions in leaf expansion (Rymen et al. 2010). While kinematic analyses have been performed in several grass species, including perennial grasses (Volenec and Nelson 1981, Schnyder et al. 1987, Fiorani et al. 2000), to determine, for example, the association between leaf growth, meristematic activity and cell expansion, however, the contribution of alterations in cell division and expansion to salt-associated reductions in leaf size of a perennial forage grass had not been explored before.
