Leaf Lateral Asymmetry in Morphological and Physiological Traits of Rice Plant

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 8;10(6):e0129832. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129832. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Leaf lateral asymmetry in width and thickness has been reported previously in rice. However, the differences between the wide and narrow sides of leaf blade in other leaf morphological and physiological traits were not known. This study was conducted to quantify leaf lateral asymmetry in leaf width, leaf thickness, specific leaf weight (SLW), leaf nitrogen (N) concentration based on dry weight (Nw) and leaf area (Na), and chlorophyll meter reading (SPAD). Leaf morphological and physiological traits of the two lateral halves of the top three leaves at heading stage were measured on 23 rice varieties grown in three growing seasons in two locations. Leaf lateral asymmetry was observed in leaf width, leaf thickness, Nw, Na, and SPAD, but not in SLW. On average, the leaf width of the wide side was about 17% higher than that of the narrow side. The wide side had higher leaf thickness than the narrow side whereas the narrow side had higher Nw, Na, and SPAD than the wide side. We conclude that the narrow side of leaf blade maintained higher leaf N status than the wide side based on all N-related parameters, which implies a possibility of leaf lateral asymmetry in photosynthetic rate in rice plant.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chlorophyll / metabolism
  • Nitrogen / metabolism
  • Oryza / anatomy & histology*
  • Oryza / metabolism
  • Plant Leaves / anatomy & histology*
  • Plant Leaves / metabolism
  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable*

Substances

  • Chlorophyll
  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University of China (IRT1247), the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities in China (the 111 Project no. B14032), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China from the Ministry of Agriculture (No. 201203096), and grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP51587).