Whole shoot mineral partitioning and accumulation in pea (Pisum sativum)

Abstract

Several grain legumes are staple food crops that are important sources of minerals for humans; unfortunately, our knowledge is incomplete with respect to the mechanisms of translocation of these minerals to the vegetative tissues and loading into seeds. Understanding the mechanism and partitioning of minerals in pea could help in developing cultivars with high mineral density. A mineral partitioning study was conducted in pea to assess whole-plant growth and mineral content and the potential source-sink remobilization of different minerals, especially during seed development. Shoot and root mineral content increased for all the minerals, although tissue-specific partitioning differed between the minerals. Net remobilization was observed for P, S, Cu, and Fe from both the vegetative tissues and pod wall, but the amounts remobilized were much below the total accumulation in the seeds. Within the mature pod, more minerals were partitioned to the seed fraction (>75%) at maturity than to the pod wall for all the minerals except Ca, where only 21% was partitioned to the seed fraction. Although there was evidence for net remobilization of some minerals from different tissues into seeds, continued uptake and translocation of minerals to source tissues during seed fill is as important, if not more important, than remobilization of previously stored minerals.

Macro and Micronutrient Storage in Plants and Their Remobilization When Facing Scarcity: The Case of Drought

“…Numerous studies have used pulse chase labelling of 15 N or 13 C, and more recently 34 S or 65 Zn [26,27], and very occasionally 54 Mn [28], but only a few other elements have been considered under very specific circumstances (effects of genetic modifications or environmental constraints such as deficiencies or water supply). Alternatively, changes in the ionomic composition of leaves have been used to evaluate (by mass balance) the net remobilization of most leaf nutrients during irreversible processes such as monocarpic senescence [29][30][31][32][33].…”

Identification of Novel Genomic Loci Associated with Soybean Shoot Tissue Macro and Micronutrient Concentrations

“…For instance, there is a long history and an abundance of studies linking plant tissue mineral nutrient concentrations with plant growth and yield, and establishing tissue analysis as a diagnostic tool for fertilization recommendations (Cottenie, 1980; Epstein and Bloom, 2005; Havlin et al, 2013). Additionally, nutrients accumulated in shoot tissue may be remobilized to developing seeds and can influence seed mineral composition and nutritional value (Chen et al, 2016; Garnett and Graham, 2005; Johnson‐Beebout et al, 2016; Sankaran and Grusak, 2014). Thus a better understanding of the genetics underlying the soybean shoot ionome promises to provide insights into mechanisms related to nutrient uptake and homeostasis, and into the potentially available nutrient pool for remobilization from vegetative tissues to developing seeds.…”

Peer Review #2 of "Canopy position has a profound effect on soybean seed composition (v0.2)"

“…Manuscript to be reviewed Jiménez et al 1996;Sankaran & Grusak 2014), it is tempting to speculate that canopy seed gradient in Fe and Mg may be related to greater stores of both metals in leaves lower in the canopy. Opposite patterns were observed for other minerals (Ca, Mn, and Cu) suggesting that remobilization is either mineral specific or not quantitatively important in delivery of minerals to developing seeds.…”