Free-space marker studies on the leaf ofZea mays L.

Abstract

Two free-space marker procedures (Prussian blue and lanthanum nitrate) were employed to determine the pathway(s) followed by water and solutes in the transpiration stream after their introduction into the xylem of small and intermediate bundles, and the effectiveness of the suberin lamellae of the bundle-sheath cells as a barrier to the movement of tracer ions (Fe3+ and La3+). Judged from the distribution of Prussian-blue crystals (insoluble, crystalline deposits resulting from the precipitation of ferric ions by ferrocyanide anions) and lanthanum deposits, water and the tracer ions moved readily from the lumina of the vessels into the apoplast (cell wall continuum) of the phloem and bundle-sheath cells via portions of vessel primary walls not bearing lignified secondary wall thickenings. Prussian blue and lanthanum deposits were abundant on the bundlesheath cell side of the bundle sheath/mesophyll interface but few occurred on that of the mesophyll, indicating that the suberin lamella is an effective barrier to apoplastic movement of both ferric and lanthanum ions. The presence of Prussian-blue crystals and lanthanum deposits in the compound middle lamella of the radial wall of the bundle-sheath cells indicates that the compound middle lamella provides an apoplastic pathway for transpirational water from the xylem to the evaporating surfaces of the mesophyll and epidermal cells.