Abstract
THE investigations of Heath1,2 have shown that the classical theory of the control of stomatal movement by starch–sugar balance in the guard-cells must be viewed with the deepest suspicion, at least so far as the light response is concerned; but the difficulty in all such investigations has been the great variation in starch content between different stomata on the same leaf, and the absence of any satisfactory method whereby it could be measured. Neither the method adopted by Heath2 (the publication of selected photographic records) nor the subjective visual ‘scoring’ method of Small3 affords more than a rough survey of a large number of stomata; what is required is a method of estimation of the starch in individual guard-cells.
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References
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Small, J., et al., Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., B, 61, 233 (1942).
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WILLIAMS, W., SPENCER, G. Quantitative Estimation of Stomatal Starch. Nature 166, 34–35 (1950). https://doi.org/10.1038/166034b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/166034b0
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