Age and temperature effects on saturation of leaf fatty acids of Saxifraga cernua , an arctic herb

Leaves from 90-day-old Saxifraga cernua plants which had been grown at 10 °C had more linolenic acid and less linoleic, oleic, and palmitic acids than did leaves from plants grown at 20 °C. When the linolenic acid content of the leaves was measured over the entire life cycle, the plants reached 66 d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Botany
Main Authors: Marie, Beverley A. H., Cummins, W. Raymond
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1984
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b84-140
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b84-140
Description
Summary:Leaves from 90-day-old Saxifraga cernua plants which had been grown at 10 °C had more linolenic acid and less linoleic, oleic, and palmitic acids than did leaves from plants grown at 20 °C. When the linolenic acid content of the leaves was measured over the entire life cycle, the plants reached 66 days of age before the linolenic acid content was greater in 10 °C-grown plants than in 20 °C-grown plants. Plants grown at 20 °C, which had been shifted to 10 °C for 4 days, generally had more linolenic acid than plants grown continually at 20 °C, but there were few statistically significant differences. Larger increases tended to occur in plants which were older than 58 days at the time of the temperature shift. The corresponding shift of 10 °C-grown plants to 20 °C for 4 days resulted in inconsistent differences in linolenic acid content.