EFFECTS OF EXCESS Cu ON GROWTH AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS OF BARLEY PLANTS. IMPLICATION WITH A SCREENING TEST FOR Cu TOLERANCE
2003, 4 (3) p. 225-236
A VASSILEV, F LIDON, J RAMALHO, M DO CÉU MATOS, M DA GRACA
Abstract
Twenty-day-old barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Ribeka) plants grown as sand culture were exposed to Cu treatment (0, 10, 15 and 20 mg Cu kg-1 sand) for ten days. The effects of excess Cu on both growth and photosynthetic performance were studied in order to identify the most sensitive probes implicating a further development of screening test for Cu tolerance within barley genotypes. The results obtained indicated that stomata conductance and photosynthetic electron transport linked to PSII+OEC exhibited the highest sensitivity to excess Cu, followed by plant dry weigh accumulation, leaf area formation, net photosynthetic rate, photosynthetic electron transport linked to PSI and PSII-OEC. It was concluded that leaf gas exchange parameters, plant dry weight accumulation and leaf area formation present an effective plant test system for screening for barley genotypes with higher Cu tolerance.
Keywords
barley (hordeum vulgare l.), growth, cu tolerance, screening test
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