Variability in net photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance of the polyploid plants
As shown in Table 2, the height of octoploid plants was less than that of diploid plants. Plant growth is usually correlated with the photosynthetic rate (Cai et al. 2009 Cai ZQ, Wang WH, Yang J, Cai CT. 2009. Growth, photosynthesis and root reserpine concentrations of two Rauvolfia species in response to a light gradient. Ind Crop Prod. 30(2):220–226.
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). We supposed that photosynthetic rate of the octoploid plants would be lower than that of diploid plants. Thus, the net photosynthetic rates of diploid, tetraploid and octoploid plants were examined. The results showed that the net photosynthetic rate of the octoploid was indeed significantly lower than the diploid, as it decreased by 50.69%; the net photosynthetic rate of the tetraploids showed no significant difference to the diploid plants (Table 3). In addition, the stomatal conductance of the tetraploid and octoploid J. curcas plants was significantly lower than the diploid plants; it decreased by 24.19% and 67.74%, respectively (Table 3).