Although aluminum （AI）-activated secretion of oxalate has been considered to be an important AI-exclusion mechanism, whether it is a general response in oxalate accumulators and related to oxalate content in roots are still not clear. Here, we examined the oxalate secretion and oxalate content in some oxalate accumulators, and investigated the role of oxalate secretion in AI resistance. When oxalate content in amaranth roots was decreased by about 50% with the increased ratio of NH4^＋-N to NO3^- -N in nutrient solution, the amount of AI-activated oxalate secretion still remained constant. There was no relationship between the content of the water soluble oxalate in four species of oxalate accumulators and the amount of the AI-activated oxalate secretion in roots. Furthermore, oxalate secretion is poorly associated with AI resistance among these species. Based on the above results, we concluded that although all of the oxalate accumulators tested could secrete oxalate rapidly, the density of anion channels in plasma membrane may play a more important role in AI-activated oxalate secretion.
Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is potentially an attractive reverse-genetics tool for studies of plant gene function, but whether it is effective in silencing mineral nutritional-related genes in roots has not been demonstrated. Here we report on an efficient VIGS system that functions in tomato roots using a modified viral satellite DNA (DNAmβ) associated with Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus (TYLCCNV). A cDNA fragment of the ferric chelate reductase gene (FRO1) from tomato was inserted into the DNAmβ vector. Tomato roots agro-inoculated with DNAmβ carrying both a fragment of FRO1 and TYLCCNV used as a helper virus exhibited a significant reduction at the FRO1 mRNA level. As a consequence, ferric chelate reductase activity, as determined by visualization of the pink FeBPDS3 complex was significantly decreased. Our results clearly demonstrated that VIGS system can be employed to investigate gene function associated with plant nutrient uptake in roots.
HE XiuXia1,2,JIN ChongWei1, LI GuiXin3, YOU GuangYi4, ZHOU XuePing3 & ZHENG ShaoJian4 1 Key Laboratory for Environmental and Ecosystem Health of the Ministry of Education, College of Environmental and Resource Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
In various plant species, Fe deficiency increases lateral root branching. However, whether this morphological alteration contributes to the Fe deficiency-induced physiological responses still remains to be demonstrated. In the present research, we demonstrated that the lateral root development of red clover （Trifolium pretense L.） was significantly enhanced by Fe deficient treatment, and the total lateral root number correlated well with the Fe deficiency-induced ferric chelate reductase （FCR） activity. By analyzing the results from Dasgan et al. （2002）, we also found that although the two tomato genotypes line227/1 （P1） and Roza （P2） and their reciprocal F1 hybrid lines （＂P1 × P2＂ and ＂P2 ×PI＂） were cultured under two different lower Fe conditions （10^-6 and 10^-7 M FeEDDHA）, their FCR activities are significantly correlated with the lateral root number. More interestingly, the -Fe chlorosis tolerant ability of these four tomato lines displays similar trends with the lateral root density. Taking these results together, it was proposed that the Fe deficiency-induced increases of the lateral root should play an important role in resistance to Fe deficiency, which may act as harnesses of a useful trait for the selection and breeding of more Fe-efficient crops among the genotypes that have evolved a Fe deficiency-induced Fe uptake system.
