Abstract
Nothing is known about the effect of soil yeasts on the photosynthetic resource-use and carbon dynamics of plants. Here, we determined the effect of a plant growth-promoting isolate of Cryptococcus laurentii on the photosynthetic water and nutrient-use efficiencies, as well as the carbon economy of a Mediterranean sclerophyll, Agathosma betulina, grown under axenic conditions. The data showed that the higher photosynthetic water-use efficiency in yeast-inoculated plants was a consequence of higher maximum rates of CO2 assimilation, which was not related to foliar N and P content. We propose that photosynthetic stimulation in yeast-inoculated plants was a result of the increased demand for photosynthates of the yeast-root symbiosis.
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Acknowledgements
We hereby acknowledge the financial assistance of the Department of Labor (DoL) of the South African Government and The South African National Research Foundation. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the DoL. We also would like to express our sincere gratitude towards Maria Pèrez-Fernández for help with the design of the axenic pot cultures, Louisa Blomerus (Agricultural Research Council, South Africa) who supplied the chemicals and pots, and Karien Bezuidenhout for supplying Agathosma betulina seeds.
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Cloete, K.J., Valentine, A.J. & Botha, A. Effect of the soil yeast Cryptococcus laurentii on the photosynthetic water and nutrient-use efficiency and respiratory carbon costs of a Mediterranean sclerophyll, Agathosma betulina (Berg.) Pillans. Symbiosis 51, 245–248 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-010-0084-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-010-0084-0