4.7 Article

Resurrection plants optimize photosynthesis despite very thick cell walls by means of chloroplast distribution

Journal

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
Volume 72, Issue 7, Pages 2600-2610

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erab022

Keywords

Cell wall thickness; chloroplast distribution; desiccation tolerance; leaf anatomy; mesophyll conductance; photosynthesis; resurrection plants

Categories

Funding

  1. Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO, Spain) [CTM2014-53902-C21-P]
  2. European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
  3. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MICIU, Spain) [PGC2018-093824-B-C41]
  4. ERDF
  5. MINECO
  6. European Social Fund (ESF) [BES-2015-072578]
  7. Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte (MECD) [FPU02054]
  8. South African Department of Science and Innovation
  9. National Research Foundation [98406]
  10. UIB [15/2015]

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Resurrection plants have unique anatomical features such as thick cell walls and high chloroplast exposure, which help them tolerate stress without compromising photosynthetic capacity. The combination of these factors enables higher net CO2 assimilation per cell wall thickness in resurrection species compared to desiccation-sensitive plants. This mechanism is particularly successful in resurrection ferns, which show higher photosynthesis rates than their counterparts.
Resurrection plants are vascular species able to sustain extreme desiccation in their vegetative tissues. Despite its potential interest, the role of leaf anatomy in CO2 diffusion and photosynthesis under non-stressed conditions has not been explored in these species. Net CO2 assimilation (An) and its underlying diffusive, biochemical, and anatomical determinants were assessed in 10 resurrection species from diverse locations, including ferns, and homoiochlorophyllous and poikilochlorophyllous angiosperms. Data obtained were compared with previously published results in desiccation-sensitive ferns and angiosperms. An in resurrection plants was mostly driven by mesophyll conductance to CO2 (gm) and limited by CO2 diffusion. Resurrection species had a greater cell wall thickness (T-cw) than desiccation-sensitive plants, a feature associated with limited CO2 diffusion in the mesophyll, but also greater chloroplast exposure to intercellular spaces (Sc), which usually leads to higher gm. This combination enabled a higher An per Tcw compared with desiccation-sensitive species. Resurrection species possess unusual anatomical features that could confer stress tolerance (thick cell walls) without compromising the photosynthetic capacity (high chloroplast exposure). This mechanism is particularly successful in resurrection ferns, which display higher photosynthesis than their desiccation-sensitive counterparts.

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