Guard cells are highly specialized cells that form tiny pores called stomata on the leaf surface. The opening and closing of stomata control leaf gas exchange and water transpiration as well as allow plants to quickly respond and adjust to new environmental conditions. Mesophyll cells are specialized for photosynthesis. Despite the phenotypic and obvious functional differences between the two t...

C(4) photosynthesis depends on the strict compartmentalization of CO(2) assimilatory enzymes. cis-regulatory mechanisms are described that ensure mesophyll-specific expression of the gene encoding the C(4) isoform of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (ppcA1) of the C(4) dicot Flaveria trinervia. To elucidate and understand the anatomy of the C(4) ppcA1 promoter, detailed promoter/reporter gene st...

There is a need to develop rice plants with improved photosynthetic capacity and efficiency in order to enhance potential grain yield. Alterations in internal leaf morphology may be needed to underpin some of these improvements. One target is the production of a 'Kranz-like' anatomy, commonly considered to be required to achieve the desired levels of photosynthesis seen in C(4) crops. Kranz ana...

The photochemical characteristics of mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts isolated from the leaves of C4 species were investigated in Zea mays (NADP-ME type), Panicum miliaceum (NAD-ME type) and Panicum maximum (PEP-CK type) plants. The aim of this work was to gain information about selected photochemical properties of mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts isolated from C4 plants grown i...

The DNA content of bundle sheath cells and mesophyll protoplasts from the C(4) plant pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum, Tift 23DB) was determined by microspectrophotometry to be 1.8 to 2.3 and 3.2 to 4.0 picograms/nucleus, respectively. Measurement of RNA by ultraviolet spectroscopy indicated that bundle sheath cells contain twice as much RNA as mesophyll cells.

This review describes immunolocalization studies of the tissue and cellular location of glutamine synthetase (GS; EC 6.3.1.2) and glutamate synthase (Fd GOGAT; EC 1.4.7.1 and NADH-GOGAT; EC 1.4.1.14) proteins in roots and leaves of rice (Oryza sativa L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). In rice, cytosolic GS (GS1) protein was distributed homogeneously through all cells of the root. NADH GOGAT p...

The effects of a heavy metal containing wastewater sediment on two cultivars white willow were investigated in pot experiment. Our aim was to examine the effect toxic elements microanatomical parameters leaves tested plant. We examined following parameters: stomatic density, stoma width and length, lamina thickness, adaxial abaxial epidermis mesophyll palisad spongy parenchyma main vein length....

1. Starch, containing 7.05 atom per cent C(13) excess has been produced in the mesophyll cells of bean leaves, starting with C(13)O(2) containing 7.26 atom per cent C(13) excess. Approximately 67 per cent of the C(13) taken up by the leaves was determined in the starch fraction. 2. The soluble carbohydrate, containing 6.72 atom per cent C(13) excess, accounts for approximately 23 per cent of th...

Whole leaf and mesophyll cell concentrations of pyruvate, phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), ATP, and ADP were determined in Zea mays during the reversible light activation of pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase in vivo. Mesophyll cell levels of the four metabolites were estimated by extrapolation from values in freeze-quenched leaf samples that were fractionated by differential filtration through nylon ...