Leaf squeeze-flow rheometry: monitoring plant water status via quasi-static leaf compression

Turgor is an essential indicator of plant water status; however, turgor measurements are not routine. Turgor can be measured by localised compression of cells or tissues, but an accessible method to perform these measurements is lacking. We hypothesized that leaf turgor pressure can be monitored by uniaxially compressing the leaf lamina and by measuring the stress under a constrained thickness (‘stress relaxation’, SR); and that leaf water content can be monitoring by measuring the thickness of leaves compressed under a constant mechanical stress (‘constant stress’, CS). Using a c. US$300 leaf squeeze-flow rheometer, we showed that uniaxial compression provides accurate measurement of plant water status with high temporal resolution at low cost. Experimental results and a simple hydrostatic equilibrium model indicate that the cell stiffness during compression is determined by the leaf osmotic pressure. Leaf squeeze-flow rheometry is presented as a novel, automatable and potentially standard method to quantify plant water status. Full details are available at Fuenzalida, T.I., Binks, O., Bryant, C.J., Wolfe, J. & Ball, M.C. (2022) Monitoring plant water status via static uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina. Plant, Cell & Environment, 45, 2589– 2606. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14383. This study was funded using TIF's personal funds and supported by the Australian Research Council through grant DP180102969: Top-down rehydration: the role of multiple water sources in maintaining hydraulic function of mangroves along gradients in salinity and aridity.
Type
collection
Title
Leaf squeeze-flow rheometry: monitoring plant water status via quasi-static leaf compression
Brief Title
Leaf squeeze-flow rheometry
Alternate Title
Monitoring plant water status via static uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina
Collection Type
Dataset
Access Privileges
Division of Plant Science
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Significance Statement
Development of a semi-automated method to monitor plant water status via uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina.
Brief Description
Plant water status monitoring is a fundamental goal in plant science for improving irrigation scheduling and climate modelling. However, monitoring plant water status remains costly, laborious and hard to automate. In this study, two key measurement paradigms from rheology, i.e., constant stress and stress relaxation, are applied to leaves and used to predict leaf relative water content (R2 > 0.74) and leaf water potential (R2 > 0.94), respectively.
Full Description
Turgor is an essential indicator of plant water status; however, turgor measurements are not routine. Turgor can be measured by localised compression of cells or tissues, but an accessible method to perform these measurements is lacking. We hypothesized that leaf turgor pressure can be monitored by uniaxially compressing the leaf lamina and by measuring the stress under a constrained thickness (‘stress relaxation’, SR); and that leaf water content can be monitoring by measuring the thickness of leaves compressed under a constant mechanical stress (‘constant stress’, CS). Using a c. US$300 leaf squeeze-flow rheometer, we showed that uniaxial compression provides accurate measurement of plant water status with high temporal resolution at low cost. Experimental results and a simple hydrostatic equilibrium model indicate that the cell stiffness during compression is determined by the leaf osmotic pressure. Leaf squeeze-flow rheometry is presented as a novel, automatable and potentially standard method to quantify plant water status. Full details are available at Fuenzalida, T.I., Binks, O., Bryant, C.J., Wolfe, J. & Ball, M.C. (2022) Monitoring plant water status via static uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina. Plant, Cell & Environment, 45, 2589– 2606. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14383. This study was funded using TIF's personal funds and supported by the Australian Research Council through grant DP180102969: Top-down rehydration: the role of multiple water sources in maintaining hydraulic function of mangroves along gradients in salinity and aridity.
Contact Email
tifuenza@gmail.com
Principal Investigator
Tomás I. Fuenzalida
Supervisors
Marilyn C. Ball; Joe Wolfe
Collaborators
Oliver Binks; Callum Bryant
Fields of Research
310806 - Plant physiology ; 511002 - Instruments and techniques
Socio-Economic Objective
280102 - Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences; 280120 - Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences
Type of Research Activity
Applied Research
Date Coverage
2021-10
2021-05
Date of data creation
2021
Year of data publication
2022
Creator(s) for Citation
Fuenzalida
Tomás I.
Publisher for Citation
The Australian National University Data Commons
Publications
10.1111/pce.14383
Fuenzalida, T.I., Binks, O., Bryant, C.J., Wolfe, J. & Ball, M.C. (2022) Monitoring plant water status via static uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina. Plant, Cell & Environment, 45, 2589– 2606.
Monitoring plant water status via static uniaxial compression of the leaf lamina
doi
Access Rights
Open Access allowed.
Access Rights Type
Open
Licence Type
CC-BY-NC-ND - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDervis (Version 4.0)
Extent or Quantity
2
Data Size
198 MB
Data Management Plan
No

Download data files

Number of files: 2

Size: 193 MB

Identifier: anudc:6227

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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