Why Are There so Many Plant Species That Transiently Flush Young Leaves Red in the Tropics?

Frontiers in Plant Science
Wei-Chang GongLing-Zeng Meng

Abstract

Delayed greening of young leaves is a ubiquitous and visually striking phenomenon in the tropics. Here, we investigated the potential ecological functions of red coloration patterns in young leaves. To detect any protective function of the red coloration on the young leaves, leaf damage by insect herbivores was recorded in the field. To determine capacity for chemical defense, the concentrations of tannins and anthocyanins were measured in both young and mature leaves. To test the hypothesis that anthocyanins function as photo-protective molecules, chlorophyll content, maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v /Fm ), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and effective quantum yield of PSII (ΦPSII ) were measured in the field. Phylogenetic relationships were analyzed to test the relationary significance of the occurrence of redness in young leaves. Compared to the coloration in non-red leaves, young red leaves had significant higher anthocyanins and tannins content and lower herbivore damages. Young, red leaves had the lowest Fv /Fm values, which were significantly lower than those of non-red leaves. NPQ values in young red leaves were comparable to those of other groups. Although young red leaves had high ΦPSII , these values...Continue Reading

References

Aug 15, 2000·Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology. B, Biology·M N Merzlyak, O B Chivkunova
Mar 14, 2002·Plant Physiology·Patricia Müller-MouléKrishna K Niyogi
Apr 19, 2002·Current Opinion in Plant Biology·Brenda Winkel-Shirley
Feb 10, 2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·T Jonathan DaviesVincent Savolainen
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Mar 1, 2003·Functional Plant Biology : FPB·Yiannis ManetasAntonia Drinia

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Citations

Oct 4, 2020·Science China. Life Sciences·Hui-Wen YuQiang Xu

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
Fluorescence

Software Mentioned

Phylomatic
iTOL
Systat
SPSS
R package
SigmaPlot

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