Aluminium/silicon interactions in cereals

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Martin Hodson</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Martin Hodson"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="0a8b6710.jpg" border=0 width="182" height="113" ALT="Aluminium pathways in the root" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Model of Al transport across the root.</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Aluminium/silicon interactions in cereals</I></div> <div> <B>Aluminium/silicon interactions in cereals. </B> Aluminium toxicity is a serious problem for plants growing on acid soils, and the acidity can be caused naturally, as in many tropical soils. Silicon may be involved in aluminium (aluminum in the US!) tolerance mechanisms in plants and I found that silicon can ameliorate some of the toxic effects of aluminium in sorghum (see <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="alsiinter.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aluminium/silicon interactions"><U>Aluminium/silicon interactions</U></A></FONT>).</div> <bR> <div> In the mid-90's I was joined by <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.brookes.ac.uk/bms/research/molcell/evans/evans.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.brookes.ac.uk/bms/research/mo"><U>Dr. David Evans</U></A></FONT> in BMS. <B>Kim Hammond</B><B> </B>worked with David and myself on aluminium/silicon interactions in barley for her undergraduate project. David was successful in getting her a Royal Society summer studentship, during which she completed her work, and you can see it in:</div> <div> HAMMOND, K.E., EVANS, D.E. & HODSON, M.J. (1995) Aluminium/silicon interactions in barley (<I>Hordeum vulgare</I> L.) seedlings. <I>Plant and Soil </I><B>173</B>, 89-95.</div> <bR> <div> Work by<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" > <A HREF="http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/bms/ugcourses/envbio/grad02.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/bms/ugc"><U>Kay Cocker</U></A></FONT> on wheat (supervised jointly by David Evans) has shown that the amelioration depends on concentration, pH and cultivar. It now seems certain that this effect is not a quirk of solution chemistry, but has an <I>in planta</I> component. Amelioration may be partly due to precipitation of aluminium in the epidermal cell walls of the root. Papers on this topic include:</div> <bR> <div> COCKER, K.M., HODSON, M.J., EVANS, D.E. & SANGSTER, A.G. (1997) The interaction between silicon and aluminium in <I>Triticum aestivum</I> L. (cv. Celtic). <I>Israel Journal of Plant Sciences</I> <B>45</B>, 285-292.</div> <div> COCKER, K.M., EVANS, D.E. & HODSON, M.J. (1998) The amelioration of aluminium toxicity by silicon in wheat (<I>Triticum aestivum</I> L.): malate exudation as evidence for an <I>in planta</I> mechanism. <I>Planta</I> <B>204</B>, 318-323.</div> <div> <A HREF="http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00425/bibs/8204003/82040318.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://link.springer.de/link/service/jou"><U>Planta Paper Abstract</U></A></div> <div> COCKER, K.M., EVANS, D.E. & HODSON, M.J. (1998) The amelioration of aluminium toxicity by silicon in higher plants: solution chemistry or an <I>in planta</I> mechanism? <I>Physiologia Plantarum</I> <B>104</B>, 608-614.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>