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Rootstock effects on xylem conduit dimensions and vulnerability to cavitation of Olea europaea L.

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Abstract

Two clones of Olea europaea L. were studied for their potential impact on hydraulic architecture and vulnerability to xylem cavitation, when used as rootstocks. The clones used were “Leccino Minerva” (LM), showing vigorous growth and “Leccino Dwarf” (LD) with strongly reduced growth. Self-rooted LM and LD plants as well as their grafting combinations were compared, namely, LM/LD (Leccino Minerva grafted onto Leccino Dwarf rootstock) and LD/LM (Leccino Dwarf grafted onto Leccino Minerva rootstocks). Plants with LD roots (LD and LM/LD) showed significantly reduced leaf surface area compared with plants with LM roots. Xylem conduits of LD shoots were 25% more numerous than in LM shoots. When grafted onto LM rootstocks, however, LD shoots produced consistently wider and longer vessels than measured in LD self-rooted plants. This caused LD/LM plants to increase stem vulnerability to cavitation with threshold pressures for cavitation (P c) of less than 0.5 MPa compared with LD self-rooted plants that had P c of over 2.0 MPa. By contrast, although LD rootstocks caused some reduction of vessel diameter and length of LM scions, their influence on LM hydraulic architecture was too small to reduce vulnerability to cavitation of LM scions with respect to that measured for LM self-rooted plants. Our conclusion is that although dwarfing rootstocks effectively reduce grafted plant size, they do not necessarily confer higher resistance to xylem cavitation to scions which would improve plant resistance to drought.

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Acknowledgments

The study was funded by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the frame of the National Project entitled “The control of vegetative growth in olive (Olea europaea L.) by the rootstock: ecophysiological, histo-anatomical and molecular aspects”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche, Università di Messina, Salita Sperone 31, 98166, Messina S. Agata, Italy

    Patrizia Trifilò & Maria A. Lo Gullo

  2. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127, Trieste, Italy

    Andrea Nardini & Sebastiano Salleo

  3. Dipartimento di Colture Arboree, Università di Palermo, V.le delle Science 11, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    Fulvio Pernice

Authors
  1. Patrizia Trifilò
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  2. Maria A. Lo Gullo
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  3. Andrea Nardini
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  4. Fulvio Pernice
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  5. Sebastiano Salleo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Nardini.

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Communicated by M. Zwieniecki.

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Trifilò, P., Lo Gullo, M.A., Nardini, A. et al. Rootstock effects on xylem conduit dimensions and vulnerability to cavitation of Olea europaea L.. Trees 21, 549–556 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-007-0148-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-007-0148-9

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