Skip to main content
PMC home page
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1988 Apr;86(4):1163–1167. doi: 10.1104/pp.86.4.1163

Rapid Wall Relaxation in Elongating Tissues 1

Rainer Matyssek 1,2,2, Sachio Maruyama 1,2,3, John S Boyer 1,2,4
PMCID: PMC1054645  PMID: 16666048

Abstract

Reported differences in the relaxation of cell walls in enlarging stem tissues of soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) cause measurements of the yield threshold turgor, an important growth parameter, to be in doubt. Using the pressure probe and guillotine psychrometer, we investigated wall relaxation in these species by excising the elongating tissue in air to remove the water supply. We found that the rapid kinetics usually exhibited by soybean could be delayed and made similar to the slow kinetics previously reported for pea if slowly growing or mature tissue was left attached to the rapidly growing tissue when relaxation was initiated. The greater the amount of attached tissue, the slower the relaxation, suggesting that slowly growing tissue acted as a water source. Consistent with this concept was a lower water potential in the rapidly elongating tissue than in the slowly growing tissue. Previous reports of wall relaxation in pea included slowly growing tissue. If this tissue was removed from pea, relaxation became as rapid as usually exhibited by soybean. It is concluded that the true relaxation of cell walls to the yield threshold requires only a few minutes and that the yield threshold should be constant during so short a time, thus reflecting the yield threshold in the intact plant before excision. Under these conditions, the yield threshold was close to the turgor in the intact plant regardless of the species. The presence of slowly growing or mature tissue delays wall relaxation and should be avoided during such measurements. However, this delay can be used to advantage when turgor of intact growing tissues is being measured using excised tissues because turgor does not change for a considerable time after excision.

Full text

PDF
1167

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Boyer J. S. Relationship of water potential to growth of leaves. Plant Physiol. 1968 Jul;43(7):1056–1062. doi: 10.1104/pp.43.7.1056. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cavalieri A. J., Boyer J. S. Water potentials induced by growth in soybean hypocotyls. Plant Physiol. 1982 Feb;69(2):492–496. doi: 10.1104/pp.69.2.492. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cosgrove D. J. Cell wall yield properties of growing tissue : evaluation by in vivo stress relaxation. Plant Physiol. 1985 Jun;78(2):347–356. doi: 10.1104/pp.78.2.347. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cosgrove D. J., Van Volkenburgh E., Cleland R. E. Stress relaxation of cell walls and the yield threshold for growth: demonstration and measurement by micro-pressure probe and psychrometer techniques. Planta. 1984;162(1):46–54. doi: 10.1007/BF00397420. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cosgrove D. J. Wall relaxation in growing stems: comparison of four species and assessment of measurement techniques. Planta. 1987;171:266–278. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Green P. B., Erickson R. O., Buggy J. Metabolic and physical control of cell elongation rate: in vivo studies in nitella. Plant Physiol. 1971 Mar;47(3):423–430. doi: 10.1104/pp.47.3.423. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hüsken D., Steudle E., Zimmermann U. Pressure probe technique for measuring water relations of cells in higher plants. Plant Physiol. 1978 Feb;61(2):158–163. doi: 10.1104/pp.61.2.158. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Molz F. J. Growth-induced Water Potentials in Plant Cells and Tissues. Plant Physiol. 1978 Sep;62(3):423–429. doi: 10.1104/pp.62.3.423. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Nonami H., Boyer J. S., Steudle E. Pressure probe and isopiestic psychrometer measure similar turgor. Plant Physiol. 1987 Mar;83(3):592–595. doi: 10.1104/pp.83.3.592. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Ortega J. K. Augmented growth equation for cell wall expansion. Plant Physiol. 1985 Sep;79(1):318–320. doi: 10.1104/pp.79.1.318. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Shackel K. A., Matthews M. A., Morrison J. C. Dynamic Relation between Expansion and Cellular Turgor in Growing Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Leaves. Plant Physiol. 1987 Aug;84(4):1166–1171. doi: 10.1104/pp.84.4.1166. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Westgate M. E., Boyer J. S. Transpiration- and growth-induced water potentials in maize. Plant Physiol. 1984 Apr;74(4):882–889. doi: 10.1104/pp.74.4.882. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES