Water stress, growth, and osmotic adjustment

Hsiao, T.C. and Acevedo, E. and Fereres , E. and Henderson, D.W. (1976) Water stress, growth, and osmotic adjustment. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Londo-B, 273 (927). pp. 479-500.

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Abstract

Many plant processes are affected by mild water stress, with cell growth probably the most sensitive. Except for turgor-mediated processes, the physicochemical basis for the transduction of small changes in water status into alterations in metabolism remains obscure. Turgor pressure is assigned a critical role in cell growth: the physical force needed to sustain enlargement. Simple physical models relating growth to turgor are conceptually useful in examining effects of water stress but can be misleading because metabolic and regulatory responses may be marked and vary temporally. Osmotic adjustment has long been known as a means by which higher plants adapt to salinity, with much of the cell osmotica being ionic and accumulated from the medium. Though not generally recognized, osmotic adjustment also appears to be an important mechanism for adaptation to water-limiting conditions, even in mesophytic plants. In this case much of the osmotica might possibly be internally generated. Recent field data on seasonal and diurnal adjustment and vertical water-potential gradients in plant canopies are discussed relative to growth and water-potential components

Item Type:	Article
Author Affiliation:	Laboratory of Plant-Water Relations, Department of Water Science and Engineering, University of California, Davis, California 95616, U.S.A.
Subjects:	Crop Improvement > Biotechnology Environmental Science
Divisions:	General
Depositing User:	Ms K Syamalamba
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2012 06:15
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2012 06:16
Official URL:	http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273...
URI:	http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/6681

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