The relation of anatomy to water movement and cellular response in young barley leaves

Young barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Arivat) leaves were examined anatomically and physiologically to infer the pathway of transpirational water movement and to explain why the growing region is more responsive to osmotic stress than the expanded blade. Vessels with open lumens extend from the intercalary meristem to the expanded blade, and all vessels are clustered in five vascular bundles that are separated by 20 closely packed mesophyll cells. Heat pulse transport data confirmed the anatomical suggestion that water moves through the growing region in vessels and not intercellularly, and also showed that stress reduces xylem water transport within 1 minute while transpiration remained unaffected. Water equal in volume to twice that expected in the xylem, and which exchanges more readily with water in the nutrient solution than with most water in tissues, can be extracted easily from growing tissues. It is hypothesized that this water is xylem plus cell wall water, that osmotic stress will quickly reduce its in situ water potential, and that stress causes growth to stop because cells in the growing region can respond rapidly to changes in water potential around them. In the expanded blade, bundles containing vessels are three and eight cells away from the closest and next substomatal cavities. This allows xylem water loss to occur predominantly through the closest stomata, and the expanded blade is believed to be less responsive because effects of stress on xylem water potential are confined largely to cells immediately around the vessels.