Entire dried shoots were ground and processed for carbon isotope analysis at the UC Davis Stable Isotope Facility (http://stableisotopefacility.ucdavis.edu/). LWC (%) was this website calculated as 100 × (FW − DW)/DW. Mesophyll conductance
(Experiment 4) Arabidopsis seeds of ecotype Columbia and the abi4 mutant provided by the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (Columbus, OH, USA) were used for leaf mesophyll conductance to CO2 (g m) experiments. Seven replicates of each genotype were grown in a growth chamber in a randomized block design. Photoperiod was 12 h with 350 μmol m−2 s−1 PPFD and temperature was cycled 23/20 °C (light/dark). A LI-6400 (Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA) with whole-shoot Arabidopsis cuvette (Fig. 1) was coupled with online isotopic measurements of CO2 entering and leaving the shoot chamber to determine instantaneous carbon isotope discrimination and g m using TDL (Flexas Selleck CP-690550 et al. 2006; Barbour et al. 2007; Heckwolf et al. 2011). Calculations for
g m were based on whole-shoot gas exchange measurements at 350, 700, and 175 (μmol m−2 s−1) PPFD using the slope-based approach given in Evans et al. (1986). Shoots were harvested after gas exchange, leaf area was determined from rosette photographs using Scion Image (Scion Corporation, Frederick, MD, USA), and shoots were dried and weighed Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor (DW). LWC (%) was calculated as above and SLA was calculated as rosette area/DW. Statistical analysis We analyzed phenotypic data for physiological traits using standard fixed effect ANOVAs with the Proc GLM in SAS (SAS Institute 1999). We estimated correlations Staurosporine among physiological traits as the standard Pearson product-moment correlation between genotype means. In the case of the TE experiment, we analyzed phenotypic data for physiological traits using a linear mixed model analysis with the Proc Mixed procedure in SAS (SAS
Institute 1999). We fit a model including accessions as a random effect and chamber, experiment, and their interaction as fixed effects. The variance component for the random effect was estimated using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and assessments of significance were based on likelihood ratio tests (Little et al. 1996). We obtained empirical best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) associated with the random effects and consider these breeding values for each accessions. BLUPs are robust estimates of the impact of a particular accession on the measured trait while controlling for the fixed effects (chamber and experimental run). For TE, we fit a model that included both chamber and experimental run as a fixed effect. For δ13C, we fit a simpler model including accession as a random variable and experimental run as a fixed effect. In this case, factors associated with chamber could not be included because replicates within each experimental run were pooled for mass spectroscopy analysis. All subsequent analyses involving TE and δ13C rely on BLUP estimates.