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AOBPreview originally published online on January 3, 2006
Annals of Botany 2006 97(3):469-474; doi:10.1093/aob/mcj054
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Parenchyma–Chlorenchyma Water Movement during Drought for the Hemiepiphytic Cactus Hylocereus undatus

PARK S. NOBEL*

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA

* For correspondence. E-mail psnobel{at}biology.ucla.edu

Received: 27 June 2005    Returned for revision: 26 October 2005    Accepted: 30 November 2005    Published electronically: 3 January 2006

• Background and Aims Hylocereus undatus, a hemiepiphytic cactus cultivated in 20 countries for its fruit, has fleshy stems whose water storage is crucial for surviving drought. Inter-tissue water transfer during drought was therefore analysed based on cell volumes and water potential components.

• Methods In addition to determining cell dimensions, osmotic pressures and water potentials, a novel but simple procedure leading to an external water potential of zero was devised by which cells in thin sections were perfused with distilled water. The resulting volume changes indicated that the parenchyma–chlorenchyma water movement was related to more flexible cell walls in the water-storage parenchyma with its lower internal turgor pressure (P) than in the chlorenchyma.

• Key Results Under wet conditions, P was 0·45 MPa in the chlorenchyma but only 0·10 MPa in the water-storage parenchyma. During 6 weeks of drought, the stems lost one-third of their water content, becoming flaccid. About 95 % of the water lost came from cells in the water-storage parenchyma, which decreased by 44 % in length and volume, whereas cells in the adjacent chlorenchyma decreased by only 6 %; the osmotic pressure concomitantly increased by only 10 % in the chlorenchyma but by 75 % in the water-storage parenchyma.

• Conclusions The concentrating effect that occurred as cellular volume decreased indicated no change in cellular solute amounts during 6 weeks of drought. The ability to shift water from the parenchyma to the chlorenchyma allowed the latter tissue to maintain a positive net CO2 uptake rate during such a drought.

Key words: Cell dimensions, cell wall, chlorenchyma, CO2 uptake, drought, hydrostatic pressure, Hylocereus undatus, osmotic pressure, parenchyma, water potential, water relations


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