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Calcium deficiency and auxin transport in Cucurbita pepo L. seedlings

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Abstract

Hypocotyls of Cucurbita pepo L. (zucchini) seedlings grown at low calcium levels (0.1 mM) showed reduced basipetal polar transport of the auxins indole-3-acetic acid and 1-naphthylacetic acid in comparison with control plants grown at 5 mM Ca2+. The contribution to overall transmembrane auxin transport of the symport uptake carrier was unchanged by calcium deficiency, but the efflux carrier of the auxin-anion uniport was less active and the sensitivity of auxin transport to N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) inhibition was thereby reduced. These changes could partially be reversed by short treatments with Ca2+ or La3+. The NPA receptor was unaltered in level and affinity for NPA by calcium deficiency. It is suggested that the major lesion responsible for diminished polar auxin transport in calcium-deficient tissue is in flux through the auxin efflux carrier which could be subject to control by Ca2+ by as yet unestablished mechanisms.

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Abbreviations

DMO:

5,5-dimethyloxazolidine-2,4-dione

IAA:

indole-3-acetic acid

Mes:

2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulphonic acid

NAA:

1-naphthylacetic acid

NPA:

N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, CB2 1QW, Cambridge, UK

    A. C. Allan & P. H. Rubery

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  1. A. C. Allan
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  2. P. H. Rubery
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Additional information

A.C.A. thanks the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust for a Prince of Wales Scholarship and the O.R.S. Awards Scheme for an award. We also wish to thank Dr.Y. Shachar-Hill for helpful discussion of the manuscript.

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Allan, A.C., Rubery, P.H. Calcium deficiency and auxin transport in Cucurbita pepo L. seedlings. Planta 183, 604–612 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00194283

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