Hi everybody! Can anyone give me an idea about it? How can potassium affect plants tolerant to drought by sufficient and insufficient amounts in plant? Thank you.
Hi
Potassium (K) is an essential nutrient that affects most of the biochemical and physiological processes that influence plant growth and metabolism. Plants that are continuously exposed to drought stress can form ROS, which leads to leaf damage and, ultimately, decreases crop yield. During drought stress, root growth and the rates of K+ diffusion in the soil towards the roots were both restricted, thus limiting K acquisition. The resulting lower K concentrations can further depress the plant resistance to drought stress, as well as K absorption. Maintaining adequate plant K is, therefore, critical for plant drought resistance.
please have a look on following articles :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3645691/
Potassium (K+) is an important cation regulates plant metabolism. It involves in ionic transport across membranes in plant system. It osmotically regulates water movement in and outside of cells. It plays a major role in guard cell regulation thereby stomata opening/closing. Under water deficit conditions it involves in stomatal closure partially/fully depends on mesophyll water availability. In that way it regulates transpiratory water and minimize water loss during drought periods. Other than that K+ is essential for water absorption through root system under deficit soil moisture conditions as explained by Dr. Swapna. Potassium application either through soil or foliar spay is an viable measure of drought mitigation in many crops.
Thank you all for the information, I was also looking on studies evaluating K and Ca uptake under drought conditions. Any hints?
Potassium is osmotically active, so is involved in the hydric potential, diminishing it, and give the opportunity to retain water
The deleterious effects of drought can be mediated by application of nutrients which
may enhance tolerance to drought stress. Among the nutrients potassium can enhance the tolerance in maize plant for drought stress. The application of potassium enhanced root growth and stem elongation. Similarly, potassium increased leaf water potential, osmotic potential and turgor potential under drought stress. Likewise, gas exchange parameters are improved by potassium. Application of potassium enhanced the photosynthetic rate and has better effect on other attributes. Most importantly potassium is greatly helpful in transport of sugars prepared in leaves to fruit. Potassium enhanced the yield and yield related parameters of maize crop. It
seems quite important to study the role of potassium for increasing the plant tolerance
to drought stress and to increase yield of crop under drought stress.
Dear Suren
I agree with some explanations suggested by many, and I can conclude that pottasium plays great role in osmotic adjustment when the plants are under water stress and it affects the movement of cations and anions through cell membranes to keep osmotic balances and accumulation of water in cell vacuoles. some times is used as an alternative to Na in many metabolic activities.
Potassium is the most common ion in plant cells, it is therefore highly important in osmoregulation. Our experimental results show additional interactive effects of phosphorus and potassium on stomatal conductance and a direct effect of potassium on intercellular CO2 concentration (Pasquini and Santiago 2012):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51567398_Nutrients_limit_photosynthesis_in_seedlings_of_a_lowland_tropical_forest_tree_species
We concluded that alleviating potassium limitation increased the ability of the plant to regulate stomata for maximizing carbon gain.
Article Nutrients limit photosynthesis in seedlings of a lowland tro...
I hope it help
http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-95162013000100016&script=sci_arttext
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1658077X13000027
During their evolution, plants have developed a wide range of mechanisms to resist a variety of stressed conditions. Increasing evidence suggests that mineral nutrients play a critical role in plant stress resistance . Out of all the mineral nutrients, potassium (K) plays a particularly critical role in plant growth and metabolism, and it contributes greatly to the survival of plants that are under various biotic and abiotic stresses. The importance of K fertilizer for the formation of crop production and its quality is known. As a consequence, potash consumption has increased dramatically in most regions of the world . A strong positive relationship between K fertilizer input and grain yield has been shown .
K is an essential nutrient and is also the most abundant cation in plants. The concentration of K+ in the cytoplasm has consistently been found to be between 100 and 200 mM , and apoplastic K+ concentration may vary between 10 and 200 or even reach up to 500 mM . K plays essential roles in enzyme activation, protein synthesis, photosynthesis, osmoregulation, stomatal movement, energy transfer, phloem transport, cation-anion balance and stress resistance .
Hi does any one knows how G Quadroplexes have effect on drought tolerance since potassium is important component of the gene structure?
thank you