Journal article

Authors list: Koyro, HW

Publication year: 2000

Pages: 67-73

Journal: Journal of applied botany = Angewandte Botanik

Volume number: 74

Issue number: 1-2

ISSN: 0949-5460

Publisher: Blackwell

Abstract: 

Survival of plants at high soil salinity depend on adaptation to low waterpotential and high Na and Cl concentrations. It is typical for this habitat, that tissue ion relations, growth and survival of plants are markedly influenced by the extreme external mineral concentrations and the external ion ratios (Na/Ca, Na/K, Na/Mg). The aim of this study is to correlate salt induced growth reduction with morphological changes, ion composition in leave tissues and individual cells of the halophyte Bern vulgaris ssp. maritima.

Since the habitats are often complex and the concentrations of salts varies with the water content we have restricted our studies using plants cultivated in defined nutrient solution in a gravel/hydroponic system with flow irrigation. We compared plants grown with or without 400 mol.m(-3) NaCl.

The sea beet was able to balance the low external waterpotential and generated turgor by the accumulation of high internal Na and Cl concentrations in the leaf. However, the specifity for the uptake of K, Mg and Ca was not sufficient to hinder a dilution of these ions at tissue level. The Na+- and Cl--accumulation into the leave tissues did not lead to toxic effects because of a storage of these ions into the vacuoles. Our results suggest, that the salt induced changes of ion relations can be tolerated because Na and Cl concentrations are simultaneously relatively low in the cytoplasm. At high NaCl-salinity the K, Mg and Ca concentrations decreased mainly in the vacuole and the plant regulated the homeostasis of these elements in the cytoplasm.

The intracellular buffer mechanisms of all three ions were not restricted to the same cell types of the leave. While K can be supplied from the vacuoles of nearly all leave tissues, Mg is located mainly in photosynthetically active cells and Ca is stored in the so called "crystal cells". These buffers were sufficient to enable the sea beet to finish its life cycle.

Harvard Citation style: Koyro, H. (2000) Effect of high NaCl-salinity on plant growth, leaf morphology, and ion composition in leaf tissues of Beta vulgaris ssp maritima, Journal of applied botany = Angewandte Botanik, 74(1-2), pp. 67-73

APA Citation style: Koyro, H. (2000). Effect of high NaCl-salinity on plant growth, leaf morphology, and ion composition in leaf tissues of Beta vulgaris ssp maritima. Journal of applied botany = Angewandte Botanik. 74(1-2), 67-73.