Responses of leaf photosynthesis and plant growth to altered source–sink balance in a Japanese and a Dutch tomato cultivar

Abstract: We investigated the effects of altered source/sink ratio by leaf or fruit pruning on leaf photosynthetic characteristics and whole-plant growth of ‘Momotaro York’, a Japanese cultivar, and ‘Dundee’, a Dutch cultivar and verified a hypothesis for sink-limitation of plant growth proposed by . Plants were grown hydroponically with a high-wire system in a greenhouse for 11 weeks. Light-saturated photosynthesis of young, fully expanded leaves measured at atmospheric CO2 partial pressure of 37Pa and at an intercellular CO2 partial pressure of 20Pa was not influenced by alteration of source/sink ratio for either cultivar. Although soluble sugars were accumulated in leaves under high source/sink conditions, the amount of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, a rate-limiting factor for CO2-limited photosynthesis, was not affected by the altered source–sink balance. Net assimilation rate of a whole plant increased with decreasing source/sink ratio, but this can be accounted for by the changes in light interception per unit leaf area, without taking the source–sink relationship into consideration. It was concluded that the altered source/sink ratio did not change leaf photosynthetic capacity and the sink-limitation hypothesis cannot be applied to either cultivar under the conditions of the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]