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A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Mrad, A; Domec, J-C; Huang, C-W; Lens, F; Katul, G
Published in: Plant, cell & environment
December 2018

Plant xylem response to drought is routinely represented by a vulnerability curve (VC). Despite the significance of VCs, the connection between anatomy and tissue-level hydraulic response to drought remains a subject of inquiry. We present a numerical model of water flow in flowering plant xylem that combines current knowledge on diffuse-porous anatomy and embolism spread to explore this connection. The model produces xylem networks and uses different parameterizations of intervessel connection vulnerability to embolism spread: the Young-Laplace equation and pit membrane stretching. Its purpose is upscaling processes occurring on the microscopic length scales, such as embolism propagation through pit membranes, to obtain tissue-scale hydraulics. The terminal branch VC of Acer glabrum was successfully reproduced relying only on real observations of xylem tissue anatomy. A sensitivity analysis shows that hydraulic performance and VC shape and location along the water tension axis are heavily dependent on anatomy. The main result is that the linkage between pit-scale and vessel-scale anatomical characters, along with xylem network topology, affects VCs significantly. This work underscores the importance of stepping up research related to the three-dimensional network structure of xylem tissues. The proposed model's versatility makes it an important tool to explore similar future questions.

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Published In

Plant, cell & environment

DOI

EISSN

1365-3040

ISSN

0140-7791

Publication Date

December 2018

Volume

41

Issue

12

Start / End Page

2718 / 2730

Related Subject Headings

  • Xylem
  • Wood
  • Water
  • Trees
  • Plant Biology & Botany
  • Models, Biological
  • Dehydration
  • Acer
  • 3108 Plant biology
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
 

Citation

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Mrad, A., Domec, J.-C., Huang, C.-W., Lens, F., & Katul, G. (2018). A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation. Plant, Cell & Environment, 41(12), 2718–2730. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13415
Mrad, Assaad, Jean-Christophe Domec, Cheng-Wei Huang, Frederic Lens, and Gabriel Katul. “A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation.Plant, Cell & Environment 41, no. 12 (December 2018): 2718–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13415.
Mrad A, Domec J-C, Huang C-W, Lens F, Katul G. A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation. Plant, cell & environment. 2018 Dec;41(12):2718–30.
Mrad, Assaad, et al. “A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation.Plant, Cell & Environment, vol. 41, no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp. 2718–30. Epmc, doi:10.1111/pce.13415.
Mrad A, Domec J-C, Huang C-W, Lens F, Katul G. A network model links wood anatomy to xylem tissue hydraulic behaviour and vulnerability to cavitation. Plant, cell & environment. 2018 Dec;41(12):2718–2730.
Journal cover image

Published In

Plant, cell & environment

DOI

EISSN

1365-3040

ISSN

0140-7791

Publication Date

December 2018

Volume

41

Issue

12

Start / End Page

2718 / 2730

Related Subject Headings

  • Xylem
  • Wood
  • Water
  • Trees
  • Plant Biology & Botany
  • Models, Biological
  • Dehydration
  • Acer
  • 3108 Plant biology
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences