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JXB Advance Access published online on August 13, 2004

Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erh232
© 2004 by Oxford University Press
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Received January 14, 2004
Accepted June 18, 2004

RESEARCH PAPER

Performance of seminal and nodal roots of wheat in stagnant solution: K+ and P uptake and effects of increasing O2 partial pressures around the shoot on nodal root elongation

Amara Wiengweera 1 Hank Greenway 2*

1 School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; Present address: Department of Agriculture of Thailand, Bangkhen, Bangkok Thailand
2 School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hank{at}cyllene.uwa.edu.au.


   Abstract

Roots of intact wheat plants were grown for 7-12 d in stagnant nutrient solution, containing 0.1% agar, to mimic the lack of convection in waterlogged soil. Net K+ and P uptakes by seminal and nodal roots were measured separately using a split root system. For seminal roots in stagnant solution, net uptakes as a percentage of aerated roots were between 0% and 16% for P, while K+ ranged between 15% uptake and 54% loss. For the more waterlogging-tolerant nodal roots, net uptakes in stagnant nutrient solution, as a percentage of aerated roots, were 31-73% for P and 69-115% for K+. Elongation rates of nodal roots in stagnant nutrient were about 35-43% of those for roots in aerated solution. This partial inhibition occurred in these nodal roots despite their 15% porosity (v/v). Elevation of O2 partial pressures around the shoots to 40 kPa and then to 80 kPa substantially accelerated nodal root elongation in stagnant solution, demonstrating that most of the inhibition seen with ambient O2 around the shoots was associated with a restricted O2 supply to these nodal roots. Thus, in wheat nodal roots, with a partial pressure of 20 kPa O2 around the shoots, O2 diffusion from the shoots did not completely relieve the restrictions on elongation resulting from stagnancy in the nutrient solution. These results contrast with those in the literature for rice, in which roots function efficiently in stagnant solutions (0.1% agar). So, when wheat roots are aerenchymatous there are still restrictions to O2 diffusion in the gas space continuum between the atmosphere and the functional tissues of the roots. This poor acclimation must have been due to inefficiency of the aerenchymatous axes, which may include persistence of anoxic steles, and/or restricted O2 diffusion in other parts of the gas space continuum, in either the shoots and shoot-root junction or in the root tip.

Keywords: Aerenchyma; nodal roots; nutrient uptake; O2 in roots; root elongation; seminal roots; shoot O2 supply; stagnant solution; Triticum aestivum.
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