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. 1982 Apr;69(4):771–775. doi: 10.1104/pp.69.4.771

Control of Leaf Expansion by Nitrogen Nutrition in Sunflower Plants 1

ROLE OF HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY AND TURGOR

John W Radin 1,2,3,2, John S Boyer 1,2,3
PMCID: PMC426303  PMID: 16662294

Abstract

Nitrogen nutrition strongly affected the growth rate of young sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) leaves. When plants were grown from seed on either of two levels of N availability, a 33% decrease in tissue N of expanding leaves was associated with a 75% overall inhibition of leaf growth. Almost all of the growth inhibition resulted from a depression of the daytime growth rate. Measurements of pressure-induced water flux through roots showed that N deficiency decreased root hydraulic conductivity by about half. Thus, N deficiency lowered the steady-state water potential of expanding leaves during the daytime when transpiration was occurring. As a result, N-deficient leaves were unable to maintain adequate turgor for growth in the daytime. N deficiency also decreased the hydraulic conductivity for water movement into expanding leaf cells in the absence of transpiration, but growth inhibition at night was much less than in the daytime. N nutrition had no detectable effects on plastic extensibility or the threshold turgor for growth.

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Selected References

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

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