Premium
13 C/ 12 C isotope labelling to study leaf carbon respiration and allocation in twigs of field‐grown beech trees
Author(s) -
Nogués Salvador,
Damesin Claire,
Tcherkez Guillaume,
Maunoury Florence,
Cornic Gabriel,
Ghashghaie Jaleh
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.2297
Subject(s) - beech , labelling , isotopes of carbon , fagus sylvatica , respiration , carbon fibers , chemistry , botany , carbon dioxide , isotope , horticulture , environmental chemistry , biology , total organic carbon , biochemistry , materials science , physics , composite number , composite material , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
In situ 13 C/ 12 C isotopic labelling was conducted in field‐grown beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) twigs to study carbon respiration and allocation. This was achieved with a portable gas‐exchange open system coupled to an external chamber. This method allowed us to subject leafy twigs to CO 2 with a constant carbon isotope composition ( δ 13 C of −51.2‰) in an open system in the field. The labelling was done during the whole light period at two different dates (in June 2002 and October 2003). The δ 13 C values of respiratory metabolites and CO 2 that is subsequently respired during the night were measured. It was found that night‐respired CO 2 is not completely labelled (only ca. 58% and 27% of new carbon is found in respired CO 2 immediately after the labelling in June 2002 and October 2003, respectively) and the labelling level progressively disappeared during the next day. It is concluded that the carbon respired by beech leaves after illumination was supplied by a mixture of carbon sources in which current carbohydrates were not the only contributors. In addition, as has been found in herbaceous plants, isotopic data before labelling showed that carbon isotope discrimination favoring the 13 C isotope occurred during the night respiration of beech leaves. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.