Root K+ Acquisition in Plants: The Arabidopsis thaliana Model
K+ is an essential macronutrient required by plants to complete their life cycle. It fulfills important functions and it is widely used as a fertilizer to increase crop production. Thus, the identification of the systems involved in K+ acquisition by plants has always been a research goal as it may...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2011 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/344341 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/344341 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Arabidopsis Nutrition Potassium Salinity Uptake |
| Sumario: | K+ is an essential macronutrient required by plants to complete their life cycle. It fulfills important functions and it is widely used as a fertilizer to increase crop production. Thus, the identification of the systems involved in K+ acquisition by plants has always been a research goal as it may eventually produce molecular tools to enhance crop productivity further. This review is focused on the recent findings on the systems involved in K+ acquisition. From Epstein's pioneering work >40 years ago, K+ uptake was considered to consist of a high- and a low-affinity component. The subsequent molecular approaches identified genes encoding K+ transport systems which could be involved in the first step of K+ uptake at the plant root. Insights into the regulation of these genes and the proteins that they encode have also been gained in recent studies. A demonstration of the role of the two main K+ uptake systems at the root, AtHKA5 and AKT1, has been possible with the study of Arabidopsis thaliana T-DNA insertion lines that knock out these genes. AtHAK5 was revealed as the only uptake system at external concentrations <10 μM. Between 10 and 200 μM both AtHAK5 and AKT1 contribute to K+ acquisition. At external concentrations >500 μM, AtHAK5 is not relevant and AKT1's contribution to K+ uptake becomes more important. At 10 mM K+, unidentified systems may provide sufficient K+ uptake for plant growth |
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