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Protective role of mucilage against Al toxicity to root apex of pea (Pisum sativum)

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Abstract

Mucilage can strongly bind Al in the rhizosphere. Although there are still debates about the role of mucilage in protection of the root apex from Al toxicity, we considered that it might be associated with the characteristics of Al adsorption in mucilage. When the mucilage was kept intact, the accumulation of Al and induction of callose in root tips of pea (Pisum sativum) remained lower; thus root elongation was less inhibited than when mucilage was removed under Al exposure in mist culture. Size exclusion chromatography showed both a high and a low molecular weight polysaccharide fraction from root mucilage. Aluminum was predominately detected in high molecular weight polysaccharides, which strongly bound cations. The results indicate that the persistence of mucilage does protect the root apex from Al toxicity by immobilizing Al in high molecular weight polysaccharides.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30471035, 30571115 and 31172038), the Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (210154) and Guangdong National Science Foundation (06029443). We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Heiner E. Goldbach (Plant Nutrition-Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn, Germany) for useful suggestions on manuscript organization and for critical reviews of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Dr Authur A. Callaghan (Faculty of Sciences, Staffordshire University, UK) for critically reading and revising the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Trace Elements, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Mingjian Geng & Zhuqing Zhao

  2. Department of Horticulture, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, People’s Republic of China

    Miaomiao Xu, Hongdong Xiao, Huizhen Wang, Lilan He & Min Yu

Authors
  1. Mingjian Geng
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  2. Miaomiao Xu
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  3. Hongdong Xiao
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  4. Huizhen Wang
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  5. Lilan He
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  6. Zhuqing Zhao
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  7. Min Yu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Min Yu.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Zwiazek.

M. Geng and M. Xu contribute equally to the article.

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Geng, M., Xu, M., Xiao, H. et al. Protective role of mucilage against Al toxicity to root apex of pea (Pisum sativum). Acta Physiol Plant 34, 1261–1266 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-011-0919-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-011-0919-1

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