Some Interrelationships Between Leaf Structure, Function and Plant Growth in Selected C3 and C4 Pathway Plants

Abstract

The structural and physiological differences between C3- and C4- pathway plants have been widely described by many workers, but the interrelationships between the structure and function of these plants are inadequately understood. This is mainly due to the lack of coordination of information in a unified manner, especially in the field of translocation, the pathway through which assimilates are translocated from the site of synthesis to the sink. This thesis was initiated to link all the relevant information in order to build a better picture of this pathway. This thesis is divided into two parts. Since the techniques used to tackle the different aspects of C3- and C4- pathway plants are basically similar, it therefore warranted the necessity of having two separate but not independent parts. Each part has its own introduction to explain the aim of starting the experiments and also a separate discussion at the end of each part.