  Cell wall composition in juvenile and adult leaves of maize
(Zea mays L.).  Many leaf characteristics vary with position
along the culm in maize (Zea mays L.) due to the existence of
vegetative phase change and heteroblasty. The objective of this
work was to determine if differences in cell wall composition
exist among developmental phases and between Cg1, a
developmental mutant, and wild-type maize. In one experiment,
the middle third of fully elongated leaf blades from lower and
upper regions of the shoot was harvested (midribs removed) and
analyzed for several cell wall components. Averaged over five
inbreds (De811, Ia5125, Mo17, P39, and Wh8584), lower leaf
blades had higher levels of xylose and lower levels of total
uronosyls, glucose, arabinose, and galactose (P < 0.05) than did
upper leaf blades. With the exception of glucose, upper and
lower leaves of Cg1 plants varied in the same manner as their
near-isogenic siblings, except cell walls of Cg1 plants were
more "juvenile" than cell walls of wild-typ