AOBPreview originally published online on March 10, 2005
Annals of Botany 2005 95(6):959-965; doi:10.1093/aob/mci112
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Differentiation of Terminal Latewood Tracheids in Silver Fir Trees During Autumn
ICA GRI
AR1
UFAR1,*
OVEN1
1 University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Wood Science and Technology, Ro
na dolina, Cesta VIII/34, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia and 2 Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products and University of Hamburg, Leuschnerstr. 91, D-21031 Hamburg, Germany
* For correspondence. E-mail katarina.cufar{at}bf.uni-lj.si
Received: 20 October 2004 Returned for revision: 7 January 2005 Accepted: 24 January 2005 Published electronically: 10 March 2005
| ABSTRACT |
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Background and Aims The differentiation of terminal latewood tracheids of silver fir (Abies alba) trees grown in Slovenia was investigated in autumn/winter 2001/2002.
Methods The experimental trees were divided into three groups: one with narrow annual rings, width less than 1 mm; one with annual ring widths between 1 and 4 mm; and one group with broad rings larger than 4 mm. The differentiation of terminal latewood tracheids was investigated by light-, electron- and UV-microscopy in tissues sampled in October and November 2001 and March 2002.
Key Results In the middle of October, cambial divisions did not occur any more in any of the trees. In trees with narrow annual rings, cell wall deposition as well as lignification were completed in terminal latewood tracheids at this date, whereas in trees with annual ring widths of more than 1 mm these processes still continued. Electron microscopy as well as UV microscopy revealed an unlignified inner S2 layer and the absence of S3 and warty layers. With increasing distance from the cambium, wall formation and lignification gradually appeared to be completed. Samples of all trees taken in the middle of November only contained differentiated terminal latewood tracheids. At the structural and lignin topochemical level, November and March samples showed completed differentiation of walls of terminal latewood tracheids.
Conclusions In trees with broader annual rings, the final steps of differentiation of the youngest latewood tracheids near the cambium still continued during autumn, but were finished prior to winter. It was concluded from structural observations that duration of cambial activity is longer in trees with broad annual rings than in trees with narrow rings.
Key words: Silver fir (Abies alba), latewood tracheids, cell wall structure, autumn differentiation, lignification, light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-microspectrophotometry
| INTRODUCTION |
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Xylem formation is to a great degree regulated by genetic and environmental factors. The process of differentiation of tracheary elements and fibres can be divided into four successive stages: (1) postcambial enlargement, which determines cell dimensions and shape, (2) formation of multilayered cell walls, (3) deposition of lignin within the cell wall polysaccharide matrix, and (4) cell death and autolysis of the protoplasm (Wardrop, 1965
ar et al., 2003The aim of this study with fir trees (Abies alba) of the Dinaric region in Slovenia was to add information at the ultrastructural level on the final steps of cell wall differentiation. Special attention was paid to the question as to how long wall formation continues after cessation of cambial activity. Samples taken in the autumn and winter of 2001/2002 were examined by light- and electron-microscopy and for topochemical aspects of lignin distribution within cell walls by UV-microspectrophotometry.
| MATERIAL AND METHODS |
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This study was conducted in a permanently monitored forest stand located at Ravnik/Slovenia (elevation 500700 m), about 50 km south-west of Ljubljana (approx. 46°N, 14°E ). The site is in the Dinaric region and is typical of silver fir/beech forests in Slovenia. Samples were taken from ten apparently healthy silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) trees, 150180 years old with a mean stem diameter at breast height of approx. 50 cm. Samples containing inner phloem, cambium and outer xylem (30 x 10 x 10 mm3) were taken from all trees at breast height on 17 October 2001 (early autumn) and 14 November 2001 (late autumn), and on 8 March 2002 (late winter). They were immediately immersed in FEA (formaldehydeethanolacetic acid) and stored for 1 week in a refrigerator. For light microscopy, sample blocks were then dehydrated using a graded ethanol series. Transverse sections (20 µm thick) were prepared without further processing using a Leica SM 2000R sliding microtome and double-stained with safranin and astra blue. Sections were mounted on glass slides using Euparal and examined with a Nikon Eclipse 800 light microscope. Two October samples containing cambium and outer xylem were chosen for detailed ultrastructural analyses by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-microscopy. These samples were dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol and water-free acetone and embedded in Spurr's epoxy resin (Spurr, 1969
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Light microscopy revealed that the cambium in all samples taken on 17 October 2001 consisted of only three to six cells with a very small radial diameter, indicating dormancy. In addition, no developing xylem cells in early stages of postcambial growth were present. Staining with safranin and astra blue revealed that in trees with an outermost annual ring comprising more than 100 cells radially (typically giving a ring width of more than 4 mm), more than five cells were still actively differentiating. Staining also indicated that the inner regions of their secondary walls were incompletely lignified and that cytoplasm was still present in the cell lumina (Fig. 1). Trees with an outermost annual ring composed of 20100 cells per radial row (corresponding ring width of 14 mm) also contained differentiating tracheids adjacent to the cambium, although in most cases this was limited to one or two cells per radial row. However, in trees with a narrow outermost annual ring, i.e. fewer than 20 cells per radial row and a ring width less than 1 mm, differentiation of terminal latewood tracheids was complete. Generally, the number of incompletely differentiated tracheids per radial row was related to the width of the outermost annual ring (Table 1). Four weeks later, on 14 November 2001, the fact that the entire wall of the terminal latewood tracheids stained red indicated that the cells were completely differentiated and fully lignified in all trees (Fig. 1). Samples collected in March were similar to those collected in November in that they contained completely differentiated latewood tracheids with thickened and lignified secondary walls. From this it may be concluded that the differentiation of the terminal latewood tracheids was completed by the middle of November.
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In recent years, potassium permanganate staining has been widely used in electron microscopy as an indicator for lignin distribution in different morphological regions of a woody cell wall (e.g. Maurer and Fengel, 1991
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UV-microspectrophotometry was used for a semi-quantitative determination of lignin within individual cell wall layers. Softwood lignin is mainly composed of guaiacylpropane units and gives an absorption maximum at a wavelength of 280 nm, whereas hardwood lignin is a mixture of guaiacylpropane and syringylpropane units in varying ratios resulting in a shifted peak maximum towards 278270 nm (Fergus and Goring, 1970
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It has been shown by several authors that differentiation of secondary xylem produced late in the year is not completed simultaneously with the onset of cambium dormancy. Murmanis and Sachs (1969)
In conclusion, the results obtained by light-, electron- and UV-microscopy for silver fir trees growing in mountainous regions of Slovenia clearly demonstrate that in early autumn (October) lignin deposition was still progressing in trees with broad annual rings. Similarly, we observed incompletely differentiated terminal latewood tracheids in trees with wide growth rings in the middle of October 1999 (Schmitt et al., 2003
) and in the middle of October 2002 as well (J. Gri
ar, unpubl. res.). It is suggested that the date of completion of differentiation in the last-formed latewood tracheids is partly related to the duration of cambial activity. The cambium of more productive trees remains active longer and therefore produces more cells. On the other hand, the cambium of less productive trees stops earlier with its cell division activity leading to narrower annual rings. As a consequence of these differences, differentiation of tracheids laid down late in the season continues in October and perhaps even in the first days of November. Differentiation of the latewood tracheids was completed in all investigated trees before the middle of November.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Martin Zupan
i
from the Department of Wood Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana, Prof. Dr. Jasna
trus and her team from the Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana, and Tanja Potsch from the Institute for Wood Biology and Wood Protection, Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products, Hamburg. We are indebted to the Farmland and Forest Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, which enabled experimental work in the field. Financial support was obtained from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia. | LITERATURE CITED |
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