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Leaf area and photosynthesis of newly emerged trifoliolate leaves are regulated by mature leaves in soybean

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Abstract

Leaf anatomy and the stomatal development of developing leaves of plants have been shown to be regulated by the same light environment as that of mature leaves, but no report has yet been written on whether such a long-distance signal from mature leaves regulates the total leaf area of newly emerged leaves. To explore this question, we created an investigation in which we collected data on the leaf area, leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf anatomy, cell size, cell number, gas exchange and soluble sugar content of leaves from three soybean varieties grown under full sunlight (NS), shaded mature leaves (MS) or whole plants grown in shade (WS). Our results show that MS or WS cause a marked decline both in leaf area and LMA in newly developing leaves. Leaf anatomy also showed characteristics of shade leaves with decreased leaf thickness, palisade tissue thickness, sponge tissue thickness, cell size and cell numbers. In addition, in the MS and WS treatments, newly developed leaves exhibited lower net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs) and transpiration rate (E), but higher carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the intercellular space (Ci) than plants grown in full sunlight. Moreover, soluble sugar content was significantly decreased in newly developed leaves in MS and WS treatments. These results clearly indicate that (1) leaf area, leaf anatomical structure, and photosynthetic function of newly developing leaves are regulated by a systemic irradiance signal from mature leaves; (2) decreased cell size and cell number are the major cause of smaller and thinner leaves in shade; and (3) sugars could possibly act as candidate signal substances to regulate leaf area systemically.

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Acknowledgements

We thank teachers in our team for fruitful discussions and suggestions, and thank Tayan Liang for improving the quality of English of this manuscript, we would also like to thank those who helped improve this manuscript. This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 31571615 and 31701371).

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Author notes

  1. Yushan Wu, Wanzhuo Gong and Yangmei Wang are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Yushan Wu, Yangmei Wang, Taiwen Yong, Feng Yang, Weigui Liu, Xiaoling Wu, Junbo Du, Kai Shu, Jiang Liu, Chunyan Liu & Wenyu Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in Southwest, Ministry of Agriculture, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Yushan Wu, Yangmei Wang, Taiwen Yong, Feng Yang, Weigui Liu, Xiaoling Wu, Junbo Du, Kai Shu, Jiang Liu, Chunyan Liu & Wenyu Yang

  3. Sichuan Engineering Research Center for Crop Strip Intercropping System, Chengdu, 611130, People’s Republic of China

    Yushan Wu, Yangmei Wang, Taiwen Yong, Feng Yang, Weigui Liu, Xiaoling Wu, Junbo Du, Kai Shu, Jiang Liu, Chunyan Liu & Wenyu Yang

  4. Characteristic Crops Research Institute, Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, People’s Republic of China

    Wanzhuo Gong

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  1. Yushan Wu
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Correspondence to Wenyu Yang.

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Wu, Y., Gong, W., Wang, Y. et al. Leaf area and photosynthesis of newly emerged trifoliolate leaves are regulated by mature leaves in soybean. J Plant Res 131, 671–680 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-018-1027-8

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