Relationships between carotenoid composition and growth habit in British plant species |
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| Authors: | G. N. JOHNSON J. D. SCHOLES P. HORTON A. J. YOUNG |
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| Affiliation: | Robert Hill Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, P.O. Box 594, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2UH, UK;Robert Hill Institute, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK;School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK |
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| Abstract: | The pigment composition of leaves from a number of different plant species collected from field sites in the region of Sheffield, UK, have been compared using high-performance liquid chromatography. Expression of pigment content per unit leaf area was dominated by variation in the total leaf chlorophyll. Neither chlorophyll per unit area nor the chlorophyll a/b ratio were found to be correlated with the habitat from which the plants originated. When the amounts of different carotenoids were expressed relative to the total carotenoid pool, it was found that whilst neither total carotene (α- +β-carotene) nor neoxanthin correlated with ability to grow in shade, the leaf content of both lutein and the total xanthophyll cycle carotenoids (zeaxanthin, anther-axanthin and violaxanthin) did, with lutein content being high in shade species and xanthophyll cycle intermediates low. There was a strong negative correlation between the relative amounts of each of these groups of carotenoids. The ratio of lutein to xanthophyll cycle carotenoids was strongly correlated to an index of shade tolerance. |
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| Keywords: | carotenoids chlorophyll lutein xanthophyll cycle shade tolerance |
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