Effects of Flag Leaf and Number of Vegetative Ramets on Sexual Reproductive Performance in the Clonal Grass Leymus chinensis

作者：Jian Guo, Haiyan Li, Chan Zhou, Yunfei Yang · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2020.534278 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Botany and Plant Ecology Studies、Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology、Pasture and Agricultural Systems

Sexual reproduction is vital for population adaptation in clonal plants. The flag leaf is considered to be the primary contributor to sexual reproduction in cereal crops, and there is no unified conclusion on the effect of the number of vegetative ramets on grain yield. However, what effects of the flag leaf and the number of vegetative ramets on sexual reproductive performance of clonal grasses are largely unknown. To test this, under field natural conditions, we grew the rhizomatous grass Leymus chinensis in a homogeneous environment and conducted studies concerning the growth, reproduction and physiology of reproductive ramets in clonal populations. We measured the growth characteristics of different aged leaves, dynamically measured the net photosynthetic rate of different aged leaves and organ biomass, measured the sexual reproductive characteristics of reproductive ramets that had different numbers of connecting vegetative ramets, and performed isotope (15N) labeling of ramet pairs at the seed-filling stage. In L. chinensis clonal populations, from the heading stage, the photosynthetic contribution of the functional leaves to seed production was much greater than that of the flag leaf; the photosynthetic capacity of both the functional leaves and the flag leaf all gradually declined. Vegetative ramets translocated their own resources to the connected reproductive ramets, and a large proportion of translocated resources were allocated to the leaf and stem to sustain life...