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iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

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A comparative study of growth and leaf trait variation in twenty Cornus wilsoniana W. families in southeastern China

Xiangrong Cheng (1), Hongtao Xie (1), Liangbo Zhang (2), Minghuai Wang (3), Changzhu Li (2), Mukui Yu (1), Zhenxiang He (4)   

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages 759-765 (2017)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2288-010
Published: Sep 02, 2017 - Copyright © 2017 SISEF

Research Articles


To investigate the genotypic differences associated with the growth potential and leaf traits of Cornus wilsoniana W., we planted twenty C. wilsoniana families in southeastern China and analyzed nineteen leaf morphological and physiological traits that have potential relationships with growth. Seedling growth and leaf traits exhibited high variability among the C. wilsoniana families. The phenotypic coefficients of variation (CVs) of these traits varied from 5.33% (leaf length/leaf width, LL/LW) to 23.17% (stomatal conductance, gs), and their heritabilities (H2) ranged from 0.17 (chlorophyll a/chlorophyll b, Chla/Chlb) to 0.75 (stem height, H and Chla). There was greater genetic variation in the physiological traits than in the morphological traits. H was significantly positively correlated with instantaneous water use efficiency (WUE), Chla, Chlb and total Chl, and diameter (D) was significantly positively correlated with net photosynthetic rate (Pn), gs, WUE, Chla, Chlb and total Chl and was negatively correlated with leaf phosphorus (LP). Based on cluster analysis, three families were selected as superior families for the study area due to their seedling growth and leaf traits. These results indicate that Pn, Chla, Chlb and total Chl are good indicators to use for selecting superior families of C. wilsoniana with better growth performance; additionally, high WUE and low LP are also critical leaf traits for cultivar selection because plant adaptation to environmental conditions is important for growth performance.

  Keywords


Plant Growth, Leaf Traits, Intraspecific Variation, Genetic Heritability

Authors’ address

(1)
Xiangrong Cheng
Hongtao Xie
Mukui Yu
East China Coastal Forest Ecosystem Long-term Research Station, Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou, 311400 (P.R. China)
(2)
Liangbo Zhang
Changzhu Li
Hunan Engineering Research Center of Biodiesel, Hunan Academy of Forestry, Changsha, 410004 (P.R. China)
(3)
Minghuai Wang
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection & Utilization, Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou, 510520 (P.R. China)
(4)
Zhenxiang He
State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (P. R. China)

Corresponding author

 
Zhenxiang He
zxhe@nju.edu.cn

Citation

Cheng X, Xie H, Zhang L, Wang M, Li C, Yu M, He Z (2017). A comparative study of growth and leaf trait variation in twenty Cornus wilsoniana W. families in southeastern China. iForest 10: 759-765. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2288-010

Academic Editor

Gianfranco Minotta

Paper history

Received: Nov 21, 2016
Accepted: Jun 21, 2017

First online: Sep 02, 2017
Publication Date: Oct 31, 2017
Publication Time: 2.43 months

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