Mechanical separation of palisade and spongy-parenchyma cells from the leaves of mesomorphic dicotyledons for photosynthetic studies.

Palisade and spongy-parenchyma cells were isolated from the leaves of a number of mesomorphic dicotyledons by simply brushing the upper and lower sides, respectively, of the leaves with nylon brushes. Cross-contamination with the opposite cell type was minimal and both cell types were photosynthetically as active as leaf discs. The rates and early products of CO2 incorporation in the two cell types isolated from Zinnia elegans Jacq. plants grown in full natural light were the same, indicating that the photosynthetic physiology of the two cell types is quite similar.