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Plant Physiol, October 2001, Vol. 127, pp. 566-574
Why Leaves Turn Red in Autumn. The Role of Anthocyanins in
Senescing Leaves of Red-Osier Dogwood1
Taylor S.
Feild,2*
David W.
Lee, and
N. Michele
Holbrook
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (T.S.F., N.M.H.); and
Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University and
Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami, Florida 33199 (D.W.L.)
Why the leaves of many woody species accumulate anthocyanins prior
to being shed has long puzzled biologists because it is unclear what
effects anthocyanins may have on leaf function. Here, we provide
evidence for red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) that
anthocyanins form a pigment layer in the palisade mesophyll layer that
decreases light capture by chloroplasts. Measurements of leaf
absorbance demonstrated that red-senescing leaves absorbed more light
of blue-green to orange wavelengths (495-644 nm) compared with
yellow-senescing leaves. Using chlorophyll a
fluorescence measurements, we observed that maximum photosystem II
(PSII) photon yield of red-senescing leaves recovered from a high-light
stress treatment, whereas yellow-senescing leaves failed to recover
after 6 h of dark adaptation, which suggests photo-oxidative
damage. Because no differences were observed in light response curves of effective PSII photon yield for red- and yellow-senescing leaves, differences between red- and yellow-senescing cannot be explained by
differences in the capacities for photochemical and non-photochemical light energy dissipation. A role of anthocyanins as screening pigments
was explored further by measuring the responses PSII photon yield to
blue light, which is preferentially absorbed by anthocyanins, versus
red light, which is poorly absorbed. We found that dark-adapted PSII
photon yield of red-senescing leaves recovered rapidly following
illumination with blue light. However, red light induced a similar,
prolonged decrease in PSII photon yield in both red- and
yellow-senescing leaves. We suggest that optical masking of chlorophyll
by anthocyanins reduces risk of photo-oxidative damage to leaf cells as
they senesce, which otherwise may lower the efficiency of nutrient
retrieval from senescing autumn leaves.
1
This research was supported by the Harvard
Forest at Harvard University, by the Bullard Fellowship (to D.W.L.),
and by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
2
Present address: Department of Integrative
Biology, University of California, 3060 Valley Life Sciences Building
Number 3140, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail tfeild{at}oeb.harvard.edu; fax
617-495-5854.
© 2001 American Society of Plant Physiologists
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