Cell wall thickness and composition are involved in photosynthetic limitation
Jaume Flexas, María José Clemente-Moreno, Josefina Bota, Tim J. Brodribb, Jorge Gago, Yusuke Mizokami, Miquel Nadal, Alicia V. Perera-Castro, Margalida Roig-Oliver, Daisuke Sugiura, Dongliang Xiong & Marc Carriquí
The key role of cell walls in setting mesophyll conductance to CO2 (gm) and, consequently, photosynthesis, is reviewed. First, the theoretical properties of cell walls that can affect gm are presented. Then, we focus on cell wall thickness (Tcw) reviewing empirical evidence showing that Tcw varies strongly among species and phylogenetic groups in a way that correlates with gm and photosynthesis i.e. the thicker the mesophyll cell walls, the lower gm and photosynthesis. Potential interplays...