Does the shade of green in plants affect the rate of sunlight needed for survival. Can deeper green shaded plant tolerate more lowlight.
Good question . Hope so and presumably so , since darker green leaves are supposedly better well off with nutrients sink ( more matured as well to give better crystallinity to cell wall components) compared to light green leaves , thereby , having stronger ability to trigger off highe rconcnetration of defense molecules and activate signaling pathways leading to accumulation of those secondary metabolites which act as biological barrier against invading either pests and pathogens or even any kind of abiotic stress. However, it remains to be seen , how well a plant modulates the same pathway while combating pests versus diseases or pests/diseases versus abiotic stress like salinity or heat or soil moisture defcit stress/drought stress.
Anoop Kumar Srivastava Thank you very much for the response sir. Yes that does make sense. What about a case in which there are 2 species of the same genus. One with lighter green shade and the other with a deeper green leaf, will the darker green leaved variety be more tolerant of lowlight. That is in the absence of the stress factors that you had rightly pointed out.
In that case , please look at concentration of different nutrients , phytonutrients , secondary metabolites , some of defense molecules involved in ISR/ SAR and then see, which type of leaves do possess these in higher quantity to declare superiority of one type over other ...plus some outcome of plant in economic terms, if possible...
Darker leaves are usually healthier and more metabolite- and nutrient-rich and should be better able to mediate effective responses to shade.
I think is more a consequence than a cause. The tolerant shade leaves debeloped a little ChlA/ChlB ratio (auxiliar Chl B is enhanced for shade tolerant). Chl B is darker than Chl A and the leaves from shade tolerant plants are darker too
Agree with Francisca; leaves of plants growing in shade are thinner with more chlorophyll, especially chlorophyll b, to harvest maximum available light, and are therefore, darker as compared to leaves growing in bright sunlight.
I absolutely agree with Francisca Higueras-Fredes . There's a lot of information about it!
Article Variation of pigment composition and antioxidative systems a...
Article Tolerance vs. avoidance: two strategies of soybean (Glycine ...
Dear Namitha L H
Light, its intensity and quality, are factors that affect the concentration of different chlorophylls, especially the ratio of chlorophyll a to chlorophyll b. Plants that get abundant sunlight have less overall chlorophyll concentration and higher amounts of chlorophyll a than chlorophyll b. Plants that grow under shade, like those in densely forested areas, have a high overall chlorophyll concentration, but have more chlorophyll b than chlorophyll a.
https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/why-do-you-see-different-shades-of-green-in-a-garden.html
Hybrid plants of maize, pearl millets and sorghum have more tolerance to shading stress (due to increased plant density) than those of open-pollinated varieties.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jsbbs/70/4/70_20015/_html/-char/en
Under similar growing conditions, I did never emprically observe any difference in color intensity of leaves of hybrid and open-pollinated varieties of these crops. Therefore, dark green leaves appear to be a consequence of shading effect. I agree with J.D. Franco-Navarro and Francisca Higueras-Fredes
Best wishes, AKC
