BACKGROUND: The leaf is an important plant organ, and how it will respond to future global warming is a question that remains unanswered. The effects of experimental warming on leaf photosynthesis and respiration acclimation has been well studied so far, but relatively little information exists on the structural and biochemical responses to warming. However, such information is very important to better understand the plant responses to global warming. Therefore, we grew @entity958 at the three day/night temperatures of 23/18  C (ambient temperature), 25.5/20.5  C (elevated by 2.5  C) and 28/23  C (elevated by 5  C) to simulate the middle and the upper projected warming expected within the 21st century for this purpose. RESULTS: The 28/23  C treatment significantly reduced the life span, total biomass and total weight of seeds compared with the other two temperatures. Among the three temperature regimes, the concentrations of starch, @entity38 , and @entity1521 were the lowest at 28/23  C, whereas the total weight of seeds, concentrations of @entity38 and @entity1521 , stomatal density (SD), stomatal conductance (gs), net @entity515 assimilation rate (A) and transpiration rate (E) were the highest at 25.5/20.5  C. Furthermore, the number of chloroplasts per cell and mitochondrial size were highest at 25.5/20.5  C and lowest at 28/23  C. CONCLUSIONS: The conditions whereby the temperature was increased by 2.5  C were advantageous for @entity958 . However, a rise of 5  C produced negative effects, suggesting that lower levels of warming may benefit plants, especially those which belong to the same functional group as @entity958 , whereas higher levels of warming may produce negative affects. In addition, the increase in A under moderately warm conditions may be attributed to the increase in SD, @entity38 content, and number of chloroplasts. Furthermore, starch accumulation in chloroplasts may be the main factor influencing chloroplast ultrastructure, and elevated temperature regulates plant respiration by probably affecting mitochondrial size. Finally, high SOD and CAT activities may enable plants grown at elevated temperatures to exhibit relatively high tolerance to temperature stress, thus alleviating the harmful effects of @entity224 anion radicals and @entity273 .

The effect of experimental warming on leaf functional traits, leaf structure and leaf biochemistry in XXXX .

@entity958 :: ('3702', 'Species') :: ['Arabidopsis thaliana', 'Arabidopsis'] @entity515 :: ('CHEBI:29334', 'Chemical') :: ['CO2'] @entity273 :: ('MESH:D006861', 'Chemical') :: ['hydrogen peroxide'] @entity1521 :: ('CHEBI:26271', 'Chemical') :: ['proline'] @entity224 :: ('MESH:D013481', 'Chemical') :: ['superoxide'] @entity38 :: ('MESH:D002734', 'Chemical') :: ['chlorophyll']
@entity958 :: (3702,Species) :: ['Arabidopsis thaliana']
