Stomatal and cuticular traits on carnation tissue culture under different ventilation conditions

Establishment of microplants is related to the moisture vapour transmission of the culture vessel lid. In this respect, stomatal and cuticular physiology were characterized in detached leaves :From Dianthus caryophyllus grown in the glasshouse or in vitro at different rates of ventilation. In vitro plants grown in non-ventilated culture vessels had less waxes and therefore higher RWL compared to in vitro plants grown at Vr 0.86 changes.h(-1) The improvement of stomatal function in leaves obtained in ventilated vessels can be due to a performance of ionic relations between guard and subsidiary cells, mainly by an increasing K+ concentration in the guard cells as ventilation decreases. Moreover, data show that there is an increase in free ABA in the leaves from ventilated culture vessels to compensate for the conjugated ABA lost during desiccation. If the proliferation stage proceeds in ventilated culture vessels, the physiological characteristics of the plants produced are better than those obtained in non-ventilated culture vessels, confirmed by higher survival after soil transplantion.