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Physiology
Mineral Nutrition
Mineral Nutrition in
plants
Plants are:
Capable of making all necessary organic compounds
from inorganic compounds and elements in the
environment (autotrophic)
Supplied with all the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
they could ever need (CO2, H2O)
Required to obtain all other elements from the soil
so in a sense plants act as soil miners.
Mineral Nutrition in
plants
The study of how plants obtain, distribute,
metabolize, and utilize mineral nutrients.
Classifying mineral
nutrients
Amount required or present in plant tissue
Metabolic need for the mineral nutrient
Biochemical function(s) for the mineral
nutrient
Mobility within the plant
Mineral macronutrients
Mineral micronutrients
Essentiality of mineral
nutrients
Essential: Universal for all plants
Absence prevents completion of life cycle
Absence leads to deficiency
Required for some aspect of mineral nutrition
Beneficial: Often limited to a few species
Stimulates growth and development
May be required in some species
Examples: Na, Si, Se. Cobalt required for N-fixing
species only for development of nodules
Essentiality of mineral
nutrients
Group two:
Energy storage reactions or maintaining structural
integrity
Present in plant tissue as phosphate, borate or silicate
esters
Biochemical functions of
mineral nutrients
Essentiality of mineral
nutrients
Group three:
Biochemical functions of
mineral nutrients
Essentiality of mineral
nutrients
Group four:
Biochemical functions of
mineral nutrients
Nutrient deficiencies
Mineral nutrient deficiencies occur when the concentration of a
nutrient decreases below this typical range
Deficiencies of specific nutrients lead to specific visual, often
characteristic, symptoms reflective of the role of that nutrient in
plant metabolism
Chlorosis
Necrosis
Nutrient deficiency v.
sufficiency
Patterns of deficiency
The location where a
deficiency reflects the
mobility of a nutrient
Nutrients are
redistributed in the
phloem
Old leaves = mobile
Young = immobile
Patterns of deficiency
Older leaves on celery turning yellow while the growing points in the center
remain green.
Root Systems
Tap root and Fibrous Root
Elongation zone
Cells elongate rapidly, undergo
final round of divisions to form
the endodermis. Some cells
thicken to form casparian strip
Maturation zone
Fully formed root with xylem
and phloem root hairs first
appear here
Iron
Apical region (barley)
Or entire root (corn)
Mycorrhizal associations
Not unusual
83% of dicots, 79% of monocots
and all gymnosperms
Mycorrhizal associations
Vesicular arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi
Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza:Highly
colonized root of maize dyed with trypan
blue. Mycorrhizal formations are clearly
visible: 1) vesicles; 2) arbuscules
Ectomycorrhiza: root tip of Pinus
nigracolonised by ectomycorrhizal fungus
Manipulating mineral
transport in plants
Increase plant growth and yield
Increase plant nutritional quality and density
Increase removal of soil contaminants (as in
phytoremediation)
Further Readings
Mineral Nutrition, Chapter 5, Plant
Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger