Abstract
In broad-leaved trees, growth and plant defense chemicals have originated from photosynthates. Therefore, defense chemicals should be efficiently distributed in a leaf against herbivory, especially when the leaves are exposed to long-term biotic and abiotic stresses. To reveal this phenomenon, we examined the distribution of phenolic compounds, in particular tannins in the leaves of juvenile and adult Siebold’s beech (Fagus crenata Blume) under various light conditions by both chemical and histochemical analyses. The cotyledons and first true leaves of seedlings mainly included tannins in the upper and lower epidermis. By contrast, tannins were distributed in all tissues of the sun leaves of saplings (except in spongy tissue) and adult trees under higher light intensity, whereas phenolic compounds, but not tannins, were mainly present in palisade parenchyma cells and bundle sheath cells of the sun leaves of adult trees under lower light intensity. Furthermore, in adult trees, there were no changes in the distribution of phenolic compounds irrespective of the increase in the concentration of condensed tannins from June to September. These findings showed that the distribution of phenolic compounds in beech leaves changes from juvenile to adult trees and is also strongly affected by light conditions.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Ohtagaki of Kaminokuni Town Office, and T. Hiura and staffs of Hokkaido University Forests for supporting our sampling in Hiyama Experimental Forests and Soibetsu secondary forests of the Beech center of Kuromatsunai town. We also thank T. Itoh for supporting TEM operation, S. Fujita for English proofreading, E. Agathokleous and K. Umeki for supporting statistical analyses, and M. Yamaguchi for giving information about the response of Siebold’s beech to ozone. The work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP26292075 and JST (Grant No. JPMJSC18HB).
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The work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP26292075 and JST (Grant No. JPMJSC18HB).
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Watanabe, Y., Otsuka, Y., Hinata, K. et al. Distribution of tannins in the leaves of Siebold’s beech (Fagus crenata) grown under different light regimes. Acta Physiol Plant 44, 100 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-022-03435-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-022-03435-1