Modification of Petunia Seedling Carbohydrate Partitioning by Irradiance

Abstract

Petunia × hybrida Villm. `Red Flash' plants received either 10 or 20 mol·day-1 photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) in growth chambers at: 175 μmol·m-2·s-1 for 16 hours, 350 μmol·m-2·s-1 for 8 or 16 hours, or 350 μmol·m-2 s-1 for 8 hours plus 8 hours of incandescent photoperiod extension (5 μmol·m-2·s-1 PPF). The irradiation components of peak, total, and duration were examined. Doubling total PPF increased total carbohydrate (CHO) production by 60%, seedling dry weight (DW) by 30%, rate of seedling growth by 25%, and acid invertase activity by 50% compared to the other treatments, once the seedlings had reached the two-leaf stage. Seedlings receiving 20 mol·day-1 PPF partitioned 14% more CHO into ethanol soluble sugars rather than starch, which may explain the increase in relative growth rate observed with supplemental irradiance treatments. Extending the photoperiod for 8 hours with 5 μmol·m-2·s-1 PPF reduced total CHO production by 50% compared to the same treatment without photoperiodic lighting. Treatment with 350 μmol·m-2·s-1 for 8 hours resulted in the highest O2 evolution (8.8 μmol O2/min per dm2). Increasing the photoperiod from 8 to 16 hours gave the lowest rate of O2 evolution (4.5 μmol O2/min per dm2). Previous reports of the importance of photosynthetic period in controlling partitioning between starch and sugars may have simply observed a decreasing rate of starch accumulation due to increased total PPF.