Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 55, No. 396, pp. iv, February 1, 2004
© 2004 Oxford University Press
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Preface to Genetics of Plant Mineral Nutrition
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Plants require more than 15 mineral elements to complete their life cycles. These include the major nutrient elements supplied in chemical fertilizers (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S) and a variety of micronutrient elements, including Zn and Fe. Animals also require these elements for their well-being. It has long been known that different plant species require different amounts of mineral elements to grow, and that crop species, ecotypes, and varieties differ in their ability to acquire and utilize mineral elements. These fundamental differences between plants provide the basic rationale for studying the influence of genetics on plant mineral nutrition. In addition, it is hoped that an understanding of the genetic basis of nutrient acquisition and utilization by plants will inform practical strategies to optimize both plant and animal nutrition.
This special section in the Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB) contains six invited papers from a session held at the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) Annual Meeting at the University of Southampton in April 2003, addressing aspects of The Genetics of Plant Mineral Nutrition. In this issue of JXB, AndreĻ Gallais and Bertrand Hirel from INRA review the chromosomal loci and genes that impact on nitrogen uptake, assimilation, utilization, and metabolism in maize. They reveal that genes for four glutamine synthetases underpin the important agonomic traits of grain yield and efficient nitrogen utilization, and suggest ways in which their manipulation might improve grain production in maize. Continuing this theme, JoseĻ Franco-Zorrilla and colleagues at the Centro Nacional de BiotechnologiĻa, Madrid, describe the physiological and biochemical characteristics that allow plants to survive in environments containing little available phosphorus. They explain the complex genetic events that occur when plants lack phosphorus, and how knowledge of these might be used to improve the efficiency of phosphorus acquisition and utilization by crop plants. Writing about the control of K+ transport, Isabelle CheĻrel (INRA-Montpellier) describes how the K+ channels in plant cell membranes are regulated by interactions with auxiliary proteins, protein kinases and phosphatases, G-proteins, 14-3-3 proteins, and syntaxins. She explains how the genes encoding regulatory proteins are being identified using a combination of biochemical, genetic, electrophysiological, and molecular biological approaches. Tim Flowers (Sussex) discusses the problems of cultivating crops on saline environments, highlighting the importance of maintaining a high tissue K/Na ratio in glycophytes. He describes the generation of salt-tolerant plants through transgenic approaches and compares their phenotypes with those of varieties produced by conventional plant breeding. He concludes that, to date, conventional plant breeding has been more successful in producing plants for saline environments. Martin Broadley and colleagues at HRI-Wellesbourne have surveyed the accumulation of mineral elements in the shoots of diverse angiosperm species. They describe the allometric relationships between the concentrations of particular elements in shoots of plants grown hydroponically with lavish mineral nutrition, and demonstrate that these relationships also hold for plants taken from their natural environments. Their observations have implications for models of contaminant transfer, fertilizer recommendations, and animal nutrition. Ross Welch (USDA-ARS, Cornell) and Robin Graham (Adelaide) discuss the micronutrient requirements of humans and the challenges of supplying essential micronutrients to populations at risk from mineral deficiencies. They, too, observe that different crops, and crop varieties, vary in their micronutrient content, and present some practical, agronomic solutions to the `hidden hunger' arising from the consumption of produce with low micronutrient content. Thus, these papers illustrate basic research of topical interest, and describe how the application of modern genetic, genomic, and molecular biological techniques is contributing to practical solutions for optimizing plant (and animal) mineral nutrition.
We thank the SEB, the SEB-Plant Transport Group and JXB for their financial support, and the JXB staff, especially Bill Davies, Mary Traynor, Caroline Wilkinson, and Raquel Gonzalez Cuesta for helping us solicit and edit these papers. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we did.
Philip J. White
Martin R. Broadley
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