Combined effects of contrast between poor and rich patches and overall nitrate concentration on Arabidopsis thaliana root system structure
Manuel Blouin A B and Ruben Puga-Freitas A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Equipe Ibios, UMR Bioemco, Université Paris-Est, 61 Avenue du Général De Gaulle, 94010 Créteil, France.
B Corresponding author. Email: blouin@u-pec.fr
Functional Plant Biology 38(5) 364-371 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP10232
Submitted: 29 November 2010 Accepted: 4 March 2011 Published: 2 May 2011
Abstract
The law of correlative inhibition states that roots in a richer environment develop more intensively if other roots of the same plant are in a poorer environment. This probably occurs only when the cost of emitting these roots in the rich patch is compensated by the advantage of having more roots, i.e. in situations where the difference in concentration between rich and poor patches is strong or the overall nutrient amount in the environment is low. For the first time, we tested root system response to combined gradients of contrast between poor and rich patches and of overall NO3– concentration in agar gels. We set up a factorial in vitro experiment crossing contrast (null, weak, strong heterogeneity) with overall NO3– concentration (deficient, optimal, excessive). We observed an increase in ramification density with increasing heterogeneity in deficient situations; but a decrease with increasing heterogeneity in excessive situations. The interaction between overall NO3– concentration and heterogeneity had a significant effect on root ramification density and the distribution of root length in diameter classes. The overall nutrient status of the soil has to be considered to understand the effect of heterogeneity on plant development at the morphological as well as at the molecular level.
Additional keywords: correlative inhibition law, heterogeneity, NO3–, root development and morphology, root length and ramification.
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