Ultrastructure and distribution of microbodies in leaves of grasses with and without CO2-photorespiration

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Abstract
A comparative study was made of the ultrastructure, distribution and abundance of leaf microbodies in four species of “temperate” grasses with high and four “tropical” grasses with low CO2-photorespiration. The temperate grasses were all festucoid; the tropical grasses included two panicoid species and two chloridoid. Comparisons of relative abundance were made by computing the average numbers of microbody profiles per cell section. Although microbodies were present in the green parenchymatous leaf cells in all grasses examined, their average number per cell was in general severalfold greater in the grasses with high CO2-photorespiration than in those with low. Furthermore, whereas in the grasses with high CO2-photorespiration the microbodies were distributed through the mesophyll, in those with low CO2-photorespiration they were concentrated in the vascular-bundle-sheath cells and were smaller and relatively scarce in the mesophyll cells. The leaf microbodies of the eight grass species resembled one another in general morphology, but differed to some extent in regard to size and type of inclusion. Microbodies of all four festucoid species contained numerous fibrils with a discernible substructure. Those of the two panicoid species contained clusters of round bodies with transparent cores. The equivalence of the microbodies to peroxisomes as biochemically defined was shown cytochemically by employing 3,3′-diaminobenzidine for the localization of catalase, a marker enzyme for the peroxisome. This reaction was blocked by the catalase inhibitor, aminotriazole. The observations on the relative abundance and distribution of peroxisomes in leaves of grasses with high CO2-photorespiration versus those with low are consistent with the published biochemical data on the levels and distribution of peroxisomal enzymes in representatives of plants with high and low CO2-photorespiration, and may help explain the differences in apparent photorespiratory levels between these two groups of plants.