© 1996 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Photoperiod effect on bud burst in Prunus is phase dependent: significance for early photosynthetic development
Robert T. Besford, Paul Hand, Christine M. Richardson and Sandra D. Peppitt
Horticulture Research International, Worthing Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 6LP, U.K. / Received January 10, 1995
Summary
A 16-h photoperiod stimulated bud burst in mature rooted cuttings of Prunus avium cv. Stella, but not in selfed Stella seedlings. However, in a 12-h photoperiod, bud burst occurred earlier in the seedlings
than in the mature cuttings. In the 12-h photoperiod, production of polypeptides involved in carbon dioxide fixation and photosynthetic
electron transport was higher in seedlings than in mature cuttings, whereas in the 16-h photoperiod, shoot development and
polypeptide production were similar in seedlings and mature cuttings. In both photoperiods, the amount of large subunit of
ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase that was associated with thylakoid membranes in young leaves was higher in
seedlings than in mature cuttings. Transcript levels of rbcL mRNA were influenced by photoperiod in mature cuttings but not in seedlings. In seedlings, early bud burst and development
of the light harvesting apparatus would be an advantage at the start of the growing season, before the mature tree canopy
reduces irradiances near the woodland floor.
Keywords:
cytochrome f, juvenility, photosynthesis, Prunus avium, rbcL transcripts, Rubisco.
