HORNER, HARRY T.1*, TERESA CERVANTES MARTINEZ1, TED HYMOWITZ2, A.H.D. BROWN3, and REID G. PALMER4. 1Department of Botany, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 USA; 2University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL USA; 3CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia; 4USDA ARS CICGR, Ames, IA 50011 USA. - A survey of calcium oxalate crystal patterns in leaves of the genus Glycine and related taxa.
Calcium oxalate crystals have been identified in the majority of
flowering plants, including soybean. The relationship between calcium
oxalate and soluble oxalate is not known. A search for natural or
induced variation in crystal numbers and patterns included mutagenized
seedlings of a soybean line, transposon-tagged plants, plant
introductions (accessions) of the cultivated, wild annual and wild
perennial soybean, and accessions of related taxa to Glycine.
Leaf samples (circular leaf punches) were taken from herbarium
specimens and greenhouse and field-grown plants. The samples were
chemically cleared, mounted on slides and viewed with a compound light
microscope between crossed polarizers. The number and arrangement of
leaf prismatic crystals (calcium oxalate, monohydrate) in an
individual plant were similar but varied among accessions and species.
The crystals were typically associated with the veins and lamina. The
utility of leaf crystals as an aid in classification of these taxa
will be presented. No accessions devoid of calcium oxalate crystals
were found even though one taxon from Japan had the smallest and
fewest numbers of crystals of any specimen observed.
Key words: calcium oxalate, crystal patterns, Glycine, related taxa