Natural Variation in Physiological Responses of Tunisian Hedysarum carnosum Under Iron Deficiency

Abstract

Iron (Fe) is an essential element for plant growth and development. The cultivation of leguminous plants has generated strong interest because of their growth even on poor soils. Calcareous and saline soils with poor mineral availability are wide-spread in Tunisia. In an attempt to select better forage crops adapted to Tunisian soils, we characterized Fe deficiency responses of three different isolates of Hedysarum carnosum, an endemic Tunisian extremophile species growing in native stands in salt and calcareous soil conditions. H. carnosum is a non-model crop. The three isolates, named according to their habitats Karkar, Thelja, and Douiret, differed in the expression of Fe deficiency symptoms like morphology, leaf chlorosis with compromised leaf chlorophyll content and photosynthetic capacity and leaf metal contents. Across these parameters Thelja was found to be tolerant, while Karkar and Douiret were susceptible to Fe deficiency stress. The three physiological and molecular indicators of the iron deficiency response in roots, Fe reductase activity, growth medium acidification and induction of the IRON-REGULATED TRANSPORTER1 homolog, indicated that all lines responded to -Fe, however, varied in the strength of the different responses. We conclude that the individual lines have distinct adaptation capacities to react to iron deficiency, presumably involving mechanisms of whole-plant iron homeostasis and internal metal distribution. The Fe deficiency tolerance of Thelja might be linked with adaptation to its natural habitat on calcareous soil.

Comparison of Seasonally Adaptive Metabolic Response Strategies of Two Acer Species

“…This indicates that these elements may form a co-colour interaction with anthocyanins in ATG, although their unique complexation mechanism needs further investigation. In contrast, the yellowing in autumn leaves of APM was accompanied by a decrease in Fe content, which could be due to Fe deficiency resulting in yellowing of leaves [70,71]. Excluding B from mineral nutrient has been shown to enhance the accumulation of carotenoids and phenolic acids in carrots [72].…”

Plant Iron Research in African Countries: Current “Hot Spots”, Approaches, and Potentialities

“…To further restrict our analysis to research prominently conducted in Africa, only 48 publications were retained for further analysis, i.e., those with first and/or corresponding authors affiliated with an African country ( Table 1 , plant species and references in bold). Hence, 22 papers were excluded, as they either did not report an African affiliation as a prominent authorship [ 15 , 19 , 20 , 27 , 28 , 35 , 36 , 41 , 42 , 53 , 56 , 59 , 70 , 71 , 73 , 78 , 81 , 82 , 85 ], or the first author did not have an African affiliation, and there was no clear African research leadership due to the presence of at least three corresponding authors [ 43 , 60 , 69 ].…”

Insights on the Adaptation of Foeniculum vulgare Mill to Iron Deficiency

“…However, Marschner et al [30] hypothesized that a decrease in K + uptake, concomitant with an increase in Zn, could be attributed to the transporter sharing both elements. Ben Abdalah et al [37] related the resistance of Hedysarum carnosum (Thelja isolate) to the increase in Zn contents.…”