Photosynthetica 2020, 58(3):762-768 | DOI: 10.32615/ps.2020.026

Paclobutrazol improves leaf carbon-use efficiency by increasing mesophyll conductance rate, while abscisic acid antagonizes this increased rate

L.J. XU, H.X. LIU, J. WU, C.Y. XU
Key Laboratory for Forest Silviculture and Conservation of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Forest Ecosystem of State Forestry Administration, Research Center for Urban Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Tsinghua East Road 35, 100083 Beijing, China

Our experiment was conducted to understand the effects of foliar sprays of paclobutrazol (PBZ), its mixture with abscisic acid (ABA), or water (control) on leaf carbon-use efficiency (CUEl), photosynthesis, and respiration of Euonymus japonicus seedlings. Plants were pot-grown in a greenhouse. The study revealed that elevated stomatal conductance, mesophyll conductance, and maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation (Vcmax) in plants treated with PBZ could strongly improve net photosynthetic rate (PN). ABA could antagonize the increase of mesophyll conductance and stomatal conductance by PBZ, thereby inhibiting the improvement of photosynthesis by PBZ. The combination of PBZ and ABA significantly reduced day respiration (Rd) and dark respiration (Rdk), resulting in the increased CUEl, PN/Rd, and PN/Rdk. The increased PN in the PBZ treatment led to slightly increased PN/Rd and CUEl. Thus, the CUEl could be improved by PBZ and its mixtures with ABA by regulating leaf photosynthesis and respiration.

Additional key words: gas exchange; leaf respiration; photosynthetic respiration ratio; plant growth inhibitors.

Received: September 13, 2019; Revised: December 24, 2019; Accepted: March 19, 2020; Prepublished online: May 6, 2020; Published: June 11, 2020  Show citation

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XU, L.J., LIU, H.X., WU, J., & XU, C.Y. (2020). Paclobutrazol improves leaf carbon-use efficiency by increasing mesophyll conductance rate, while abscisic acid antagonizes this increased rate. Photosynthetica, 58(3), 762-768. doi: 10.32615/ps.2020.026
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