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Tree Physiology Advance Access published online on October 13, 2009
Tree Physiology, doi:10.1093/treephys/tpp087
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Xylem anatomy correlates with gas exchange, water-use efficiency and growth performance under contrasting water regimes: evidence from Populus deltoides x Populus nigra hybrids

Régis Fichot1,2,3, Françoise Laurans3, Romain Monclus1,4,{dagger}, Alain Moreau3, Gilles Pilate3 and Franck Brignolas1,2,5

1 Université d’Orléans, UFR-Faculté des Sciences, UPRES EA 1207 Laboratoire de Biologie des Ligneux et des Grandes Cultures (LBLGC), rue de Chartres, BP 6759, F-45067 Orléans, France
2 INRA, USC2030 Arbres et Réponses aux Contraintes Hydrique et Environnementales (ARCHE), rue de Chartres, BP 6759, F-45067 Orléans, France
3 INRA, UR 588 Amélioration, Génétique et Physiologie Forestières, Equipe Xylème, Centre de Recherche d’Orléans, CS 40001 Ardon, F-45075 Orléans, Cedex 2, France
4 INRA, Nancy Université, UMR1137 INRA-UHP Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, IFR 110 Génomique, Ecophysiologie et Ecologie Fonctionnelle, INRA Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France
5 Corresponding author (franck.brignolas{at}univ-orleans.fr)


  Abstract

Six Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh. x P. nigra L. genotypes were selected to investigate whether stem xylem anatomy correlated with gas exchange rates, water-use efficiency (WUE) and growth performance. Clonal copies of the genotypes were grown in a two-plot common garden test under contrasting water regimes, with one plot maintained irrigated and the other one subjected to moderate summer water deficit. The six genotypes displayed a large range of xylem anatomy, mean vessel and fibre diameter varying from about 40 to 60 µm and from 7.5 to 10.5 µm, respectively. Decreased water availability resulted in a reduced cell size and an important rise in vessel density, but the extent of xylem plasticity was both genotype and trait dependent. Vessel diameter and theoretical xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity correlated positively with stomatal conductance, carbon isotope discrimination and growth performance-related traits and negatively with intrinsic WUE, especially under water deficit conditions. Vessel diameter and vessel density measured under water deficit conditions correlated with the relative losses in biomass production in response to water deprivation; this resulted from the fact that a more plastic xylem structure was generally accompanied by a larger loss in biomass production.

Keywords: carbon isotope discrimination, Dx N hybrids, genotypic variations, growth potential, intrinsic water-use efficiency, water deficit tolerance, xylem hydraulics

Received July 29, 2009; Accepted September 11, 2009

{dagger} In memoriam (September 2006).


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