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Interactions Between Rhinanthus minor and Its Hosts: A Review of Water, Mineral Nutrient and Hormone Flows and Exchanges in the Hemiparasitic Association

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Abstract

At the ecological level, the effects of the facultative root hemiparasite Rhinanthus minor on the structure and functioning of its host communities are relative well described; yet until recently, the mechanistic basis for parasitic plant-driven community change and the physiological basis for the host-parasite interaction were poorly understood. Empirical incremental flow models, based on the increase in water, mineral nutrients, carbon assimilates or phytohormones between two defined time points, have been successfully employed to investigate the physiology of resource acquisition by- and distribution within host-parasitic plant associations. In this study we review the application of these empirical flow models to Rhinanthus-host associations showing the extent of and physiological basis of resource abstraction from the host and how this is profoundly influenced by soil nutrient status. We show that Rhinanthus primarily abstracts water and mineral nutrients via the apoplastic pathway through direct lumen-lumen connections with little resource acquisition via symplastic pathways. Nutrient status of the soil is shown to significantly influence the resource acquisition. We also investigate the hormonal regulation of resource acquisition by Rhinanthus showing pivotal roles for the key for the phytohormones abscisic acid (ABA) and cytokinins.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support provided to Fan Jiang by the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan (2007CB106802), by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry. We also thank Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 567, TP A6) for generous financial support and the Natural Environment Research Council UK (to DDC; Award Number: NE/E014070/1). DDC is supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie 19, 100875, Beijing, China

    Fan Jiang

  2. Lehrstuhl Botanik I der Universität Würzburg, Julius von Sachs Platz 2, 97082, Würzburg, Germany

    W. Dieter Jeschke & Wolfram Hartung

  3. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Duncan D. Cameron

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  1. Fan Jiang
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  2. W. Dieter Jeschke
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  4. Duncan D. Cameron
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Correspondence to Duncan D. Cameron.

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Jiang, F., Jeschke, W.D., Hartung, W. et al. Interactions Between Rhinanthus minor and Its Hosts: A Review of Water, Mineral Nutrient and Hormone Flows and Exchanges in the Hemiparasitic Association. Folia Geobot 45, 369–385 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-010-9093-2

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