What Quantitative Anatomy Can Provide for Kinetics of Xylogenesis: Analysis of Cell Radial Diameters

A theoretical and experimental verification of a simple hypothesis was carried out in this study to determine if features of the anatomical structure of coniferous annual rings (in a case study of pine trees from moisture-deficient growth conditions in the steppe zone) quantified in tracheidograms of annual rings can be used to reconstruct the kinetics of seasonal growth. During two sharply different growth seasons, sampling was performed periodically, and seasonal growth of tree rings was measured where the forming annual ring was separated into zones (cambium, extension zone, zone of cell wall thickening, zone of mature tracheids). Based on these data and total tracheidograms, a simple scheme for converting the variability of the radial cell sizes into cumulative and differential cell production curves was proposed. Statistical analysis revealed both correspondence and discrepancies between theoretical and experimental data, showed the prospects of the proposed approach, and suggested the need for longer seasonal observations