ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Data source :  Google Scholar QueryDate : 2016-12-24 Cites : 0

Strictly NO₃^- Nutrition Alleviates Iron Deficiency Chlorosis in Arabidopsis thaliana Plants

The effects of NO₃^- nutrition on iron deficiency responses were investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants were grown with or without 5 µM Fe, and with NO₃^- alone or a mixture of NO₃^- and NH₄⁺. The results indicated that, NO₃^- nutrition induced higher dry matter production, regardless the Fe concentration. Fe deficiency reduced growth activity, photosynthetic pigment concentration and Fe content of plants, whatever the N forms. This decrease was more pronounced in plants grown with mixed N source; those plants presented the highest EL and MDA and anthocyanin contents compared to plants grown under Fe sufficient conditions. In iron free-solutions, with NO₃^- as the sole nitrogen source, enhanced FC-R activity in the roots was observed. However, in the presence of NH₄⁺, plants displayed some decrease in in FC-R and PEPC activities. The presence of NH₄⁺ modified typical Fe stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana plants.