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A radioactive assay allowing the quantitative measurement of cuticular permeability of intact Arabidopsis thaliana leaves

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Abstract

Cuticular penetration of five different 14C-labeled chemicals (benzoic acid, bitertanole, carbaryl, epoxiconazole and 4-nitrophenol) into Arabidopsis thaliana leaves was measured and permeances P (ms−1) were calculated. Thus, cuticular barrier properties of A. thaliana leaves have been characterized quantitatively. Epoxiconazole permeance of A. thaliana was 2.79 × 10−8 ms−1. When compared with cuticular permeances measured with intact stomatous and astomatous leaf sides of Prunus laurocerasus, frequently used in the past as a model species studying cuticular permeability, A. thaliana has a 48- to 66-fold higher permeance. When compared with epoxiconazole permeability of isolated cuticles of different species (Citrus aurantium, Hedera helix and P. laurocerasus) A. thaliana permeability is between 17- to 199-fold higher. Co-permeability experiments, simultaneously measuring 14C-epoxiconazole and 3H2O permeability of isolated cuticles of three species (C. aurantium, H. helix and P. laurocerasus) showed that 3H2O permeability was highly correlated with epoxiconazole permeability. The regression equation of this correlation can be used predicting cuticular transpiration of intact stomatous leaves of A. thaliana, where a direct measurement of cuticular permeation using 3H2O is impossible. Water permeance estimated for A. thaliana was 4.55 × 10−8 ms−1, which is between 12- and 91-fold higher than water permeances measured with isolated cuticles of C. aurantium, H. helix and P. laurocerasus. This indicates that cuticular water permeability of the intact stomatous leaves of the annual species A. thaliana is fairly high and in the upper range compared with most P values of perennial species published in the past.

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Abbreviations

P :

Permeance

C :

Compartment

CM:

Isolated cuticle

D :

Diffusion coefficient

K cw :

Cuticle/water partition coefficient

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Acknowledgments

Supply of radiochemicals by agrochemical companies is acknowledged. The authors are indebted to Dr. Jörg Schönherr for critically reading an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by grants provided by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; SCHR 506/9-1) and the BASF to LS.

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  1. Department of Ecophysiology, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Christina Ballmann, Sheron De Oliveira, Andrea Gutenberger, Friedrich Waßmann & Lukas Schreiber

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  1. Christina Ballmann
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  2. Sheron De Oliveira
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  3. Andrea Gutenberger
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  4. Friedrich Waßmann
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Correspondence to Lukas Schreiber.

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Ballmann, C., De Oliveira, S., Gutenberger, A. et al. A radioactive assay allowing the quantitative measurement of cuticular permeability of intact Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. Planta 234, 9–20 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1381-4

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