Copper as an Essential for Plant Growth

Abstract

The stimulating effect of copper on plant growth was noted early in the use of copper salts as fungicides. A few years ago FELIX (3) obtained improvement in the growth of certain plants on several peat soils by the application of copper sulphate, both to the soil and in solution to the leaves. ALLISON, BRYAN, and HUNTER (1) Sunflowers, tomatoes, and flax were used in these investigations. Oneliter pyrex beakers with paraffine-coated, plaster of Paris covers were used as containers for the solutions in which the plants were grown. All water used in making up the nutrient solutions was redistilled from pyrex. In the first experiment with sunflowers the salts used had been repurified for an earlier study (5) on the effects of the absence of boron on plant growth. These salts had been recrystallized from water from a copper still; this still had the usual block tin condenser. In later experiments the water used for the purification of the salts was redistilled from pyrex. The methods used for the repurification of the salts2 are described in a previous paper and will not be reiterated here.

Arrest of mitochondrial biogenesis in copper‐treated sycamore cells

“…Copper is an essential microelement for plants [1], involved in various metalloproteins with key roles in metabolism such as superoxide dismutase, polyphenol oxidase, cytochrome oxidase and plastocyanin. However, this cation becomes strongly phytotoxic at high concentrations.…”

The effect of application of copper fungicides on photosynthesis parameters and level of elementary copper in hops

“…In spite of they belong to the oldest known pesticides copper fungicides still have great importance in plants protection. Copper is an essential microelement needed by plants (Sommer 1931). Appr.…”

Comparative Genotoxicity Analysis of Heavy Metal Contamination in Higher Plants

“…However its deleterious effects usually arise toxic levels in mining areas (higher than 2000 ppm) (Freedman & Hutchinson, 1980;Humphreys & Nicholls, 1984). Excesses of Cu ions in plant tissues may induce a wide range of biochemical effects and metabolic disturbances which are responsible for a strong inhibition of growth, sometimes accompanied by anomalous development (Sommer, 1931;Lipman & McKinney 1931) and block photosynthetic electron transport at the reducing site of photosystem I and at the oxidizing site of photosystem II (Arnon & Stout 1939).…”