Plant

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.

Mineral: An inorganic element

Acquired mostly in the form of inorganic ions from the
soil

Nutrient: A substance needed to survive or

necessary for the synthesis of organic compounds

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

There are four basic groups:

Group one:

Forms the organic components of plants

Plants assimilate these nutrients via biochemical
reactions involving oxidation and reduction

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:

Present in plant tissue as either free ions or ions

bound to substrates such as the pectin component of
the plant cell wall
Of particular importance are their roles as
Enzyme cofactors
In the regulation of osmotic potentials
e.g. Ca2+ secondary messenger-amount

determines state of stress

Biochemical functions of
mineral nutrients

Essentiality of mineral
nutrients

Group four:

This last group has important roles in reactions

involving electron transfer.
Some also involved in the formation/regulation of plant
growth hormones Zinc
The light reaction of photosynthesis - Copper

Biochemical functions of
mineral nutrients

Techniques used to study

plant nutrition
Hydroponic and Aeroponic systems for
growing plants in nutrient solutions
in which composition and pH can be
automatically controlled.
(A) In a hydroponic
system, the roots are immersed in the nutrient
solution, and air is bubbled
through the solution.
(B) An alternative hydroponic system, often used
in commercial
production, is the nutrient film growth system, in
which the nutrient solution is pumped as a thin
film down a shallow trough surrounding the plant
roots. In this system the composition and pH of
the nutrient solution can be controlled
automatically.
(C) In the aeroponic system, the roots are
suspended over the nutrient solution,
which is whipped into a mist by a motor-driven
rotor.

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.

How are mineral nutrients

acquired
by plants?
Uptake through the leaves
Artificial: called foliar application. Used to apply
iron, copper and manganese.

Associations with mycorrhizal fungi

Fungi help with root absorption

Uptake by the roots

The soil affects nutrient

absorption
pH affects the growth of plant roots
and soil microbes
Root growth favors a pH of 5.5 to
6.5
Acidic conditions weathers rock
and releases potassium,
magnesium, calcium, and
manganese.
The decomposition of organic
material lowers soil pH.
Rainfall leaches ions through soil
to form alkaline conditions

The soil affects nutrient

absorption
Negatively charged soil particles
affect the absorption of mineral
nutrients
Cation exchange occurs on the
surface of the soil particle
Cations (+ve charged ions) bind
to soil as it is ve charded
If potassium binds to the soil it
can displace calcium from the soil
particle and make it available for
uptake by the root

Roots and Mycorrhizae

Plant Physiology

Root Systems
Tap root and Fibrous Root

Comparison of Root Systems

Plant roots the primary

route for mineral nutrient
Meristematic zone acquisition
Cells divide both in direction of
root base to form cells that will
become the functional root and
in the direction of the root apex
to form the root cap

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

Root absorbs different mineral

ions in different areas
Calcium
Apical region

Iron
Apical region (barley)
Or entire root (corn)

Potassium, nitrate, ammonium,

and phosphate
All locations of root surface
In corn, elongation zone has max K
accumulation and nitrate absorption

In corn and rice, root apex absorbs

ammonium faster than the
elongation zone does
In several species, root hairs are the
most active phosphate absorbers

Why should root tips be the

primary site of nutrient uptake?
Tissues with greatest need for nutrients
Cell elongation requires Potassium, nitrate, and chlorine to increase osmotic
pressure within the wall
Ammonium is a good nitrogen source for cell division in meristem
Apex grows into fresh soil and finds fresh supplies of nutrients

Nutrients are carried via bulk flow with water, and

water enters near tips
Maintain concentration gradients for mineral
nutrient transport and uptake

Root uptake soon depletes

nutrients near the roots
Formation of a nutrient
depletion zone in the region
of the soil near the plant root
Forms when rate of nutrient
uptake exceeds rate of
replacement in soil by
diffusion in the water
column
Root associations
with Mycorrhizal
fungi help the plant
overcome this
problem

Mycorrhizal associations
Not unusual
83% of dicots, 79% of monocots
and all gymnosperms

Ectotrophic Mycorrhizal fungi

Form a thick sheath around root.
Some mycelium penetrates the
cortex cells of the root
Root cortex cells are not penetrated,
surrounded by a zone of hyphae
called Hartig net
The capacity of the root system to
absorb nutrients improved by this
association the fungal hyphae are
finer than root hairs and can reach
beyond nutrient-depleted zones in
the soil near the root

Mycorrhizal associations

Vesicular arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi

Hyphae grow in dense

arrangement , both within the root
itself and extending out from the
root into the soil
After entering root, either by root
hair or through epidermis hyphae
move through regions between
cells and penetrate individual
cortex cells.
Within cells form oval structures
vesicles and branched
structures arbuscules (site of
nutrient transfer)
P, Cu, & Zn absorption improved by
hyphae reaching beyond the nutrientdepleted zones in the soil near the

Nutrients move from fungi

to root cells
Ectotrophic Mycorrhizal
Occurs by simple diffusion from the hyphae in the hartig
net to the root cells
Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Occurs by simple diffusion from the arbuscules to the
root cells
Also, as arbuscules are degenerating as new ones are
forming, the nutrients may be released directly into the
host cell

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