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Notes: The effect of juvenile cereal cyst nematodes (Heterodera avenae) on the root growth of oat and barley seedlings was tested in three pot experiments. Invasion by juveniles hindered the extension of the seminal root axes of both cereals; after invasion, axes took 2–3 days to attain normal rates of extension. This response was found in susceptible and resistant cultivars. When oats and barley were exposed to continued invasion over 9 days, barley produced a larger root system than oats and was less stunted by nematode invasion. The density of nematodes per unit of root was less in barley than in oats. The effects on root growth were similar to reported responses of roots to mechanical damage.

Notes: Abstract Lolium perenne L. cv. S23 was grown in flowing culture solution, pH 5, in which the concentrations of NH4+, NO3− and K+ were frequently monitored and adjusted to set values. In a pre-experimental period, plants were acclimatized to a regime in which roots were treated at 5°C with shoots at 25°C. The root temperature was then changed to one of the following, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17 or 25°C, while air temperature remained at 25°C.When root temperature was increased from 5X, the relative growth rate of roots increased immediately while that of shoots changed much less for a period of approximately 9 d (phase 1). Thus, the root: shoot ratio increased, but eventually approached a new, temperature-dependent, steady value (phase 2). The fresh: freeze-dried weight ratio (i.e. water content) in shoots (and roots) increased during the first phase of morphological adjustment (phase 1).In both growth phases and at all temperatures, plants absorbed more NH4+ than NO4+, the tendency being extreme at temperatures below 9° where more than 85% of the N absorbed was NH4+. Plants at different root temperatures, growing at markedly different rates, had very similar concentrations of total N in their tissues (cells) on a fresh weight basis, despite the fact that they derived their N with differing preference for NH4+. Specific absorption rates for NH4+, NOx−, K+ and H2PO4− showed very marked dependence on root temperature in phase 1, but ceased to show this dependence once a steady state root: shoot ratio had been established in phase 2.The results indicate the importance of relative root size in determining ion fluxes at the root surface. At higher temperatures where the root system was relatively large, ‘demand’ per unit root was low, whereas at low temperatures roots were small relative to shoots and ‘demand’ was high enough to offset the inhibitory effects of low temperature on transport processes.

Notes: Abstract The development of suberin lamellae in the hypodermis of Zea mays cv. LG 11 was observed by electron microscopy and the presence of suberin inferred from autoliuorescence and by Sudan black B staining in nodal (adventitious) and primary (seminal) root axes. Suberin lamellae were evident at a distance of 30–50 mm from the tip of roots growing at 20°C and became more prominent with distance from the tip. Both oxygen deficiency and growth at 13°C produced shorter roots in which the hypodermis was suberized closer to the root tip. There were no suberin lamellae in epidermal cells or cortical collenchyma adjacent to the hypodermis. Plasmodesmata were not occluded by the suberin lamellae: there were twice as many of them in the inner tangential hypodermal wall (1,14 μn−2) as in the junction between the epidermis and hypodermis (0.54 μm−2).Water uptake by seminal axes (measured by micropotometry) was greater at distances more than 100 mm from the root lip than in the apical zone where the hypodermis was unsuberized. In the more mature zones of roots grown at 13°C rates of water uptake were greater than in roots grown at 20°C even though hypodermal suberization was more marked.Sleeves of epidermal/hypodermal cells (plus some accessory collenchyma) were isolated from the basal 60 mm of nodal axes by enzymatic digestion (drisclase). The roots were either kept totally immersed in culture solution or had the basal 50 mm exposed to moist air above the solution surface. In both treatments the permeabilities to tritiated water and 86Rb were low (circa 10−5mms−1) in sleeves isolated from the extreme base. In roots grown totally immersed, however, the permeability of sleeves increased 10 to 50-fold over a distance of 40 mm. In roots exposed to moist air the permeability remained at a low level until the point where the root entered the culture solution and then increased rapidly (〉 50-fold in a distance of 8 mm). Growth of roots in oxygen depleted (5% O2) solutions promoted the development of extensive cortical aerenchymas. These developments were not associated with any reduction in permeability of sleeves isolated from the basal 40 mm of the axis.It was concluded that the presence of suberin lamellae in hypodermal walls does not necessarily indicate low permeability of cells or tissues to water or solutes. The properties of the walls (lamellae?) can be greatly changed by exposure to moist air, perhaps due to increased oxygen availability.

Notes: Lolium perenne L. cv. 23 (perennial ryegrass) plants were grown in flowing solution culture and acclimatized over 49 d to low root temperature (5°C) prior to treatment at root temperatures of 3, 5, 7 and 9°C for 41 d with common air temperature of 20/15°C day/night and solution pH 5·0. The effects of root temperature on growth, uptake and assimilation of N were compared with N supplied as either NH4 or NO3 at 10 mmol m−3. At any given temperature, the relative growth rate (RGR) of roots exceeded that of shoots, thus the root fraction (Rf) increased with time. These effects were found in plants grown with the two N sources. Plants grown at 3 and 5°C had very high dry matter contents as reflected by the fresh weight: freeze-dried weight ratio. This ratio increased sharply, especially in roots at 7 and 9°C. Expressed on a fresh weight basis, there was no major effect of root temperature on the [N] of plants receiving NHJ but at any given temperature, the [N] in plants grown with NHJ was significantly greater than in those grown with NO3. The specific absorption rate (SAR) of NH+4 was greater at all temperatures than SAR-NO3. In plants grown with NH+, 3–5% of the total N was recovered as NH+4, whereas in those grown with NO−3 the unassimilated NO−3 rose sharply between 7 and 9°C to become 14 and 28% of the total N in shoots and roots, respectively. The greater assimilation of NH+4 lead to concentrations of insoluble reduced N (= protein) which were 125 and 20% greater, in roots and shoots, respectively, than in NO−3-grown plants. Plants grown with NH+4 had very much greater glutamine and asparagine concentrations in both roots and shoots, although other amino acids were more similar in Concentration to those in NO−3 grown plants. It is concluded that slow growth at low root temperature is not caused by restriction of the absorption or assimilation of either NH+4 or NO−3. The additional residual N (protein) in NH+4 grown plants may serve as a labile store of N which could support growth when external N supply becomes deficient.

Notes: 15N-Nitrate and 35S-sulphate labelling experiments were performed with spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Timmo) 44. 64, 79, 95 and 115 days after sowing (growth stages arbitrarily denoted I to V). Label was fed to the plants via a fraction of the root system, termed “donor root”, whereas the rest of the root (“receiver root”) was fed non-labelled nutrient solution. Net uptake rates for both nitrate and sulphate per unit root weight changed little from growth stage I to IV, but were considerably lower at stage V. On a whole-plant weight basis, uptake declined from stage I to IV, because root contribution to total plant weight declined. Between 80 and 95% of absorbed label was translocated to the shoot at all growth stages. At stage V, up to 30% of absorbed label was recovered in the ears. Labelling of the receiver root indicated that, at all growth stages, 10 to 17% of N and 12 to 32% of S translocated to the shoot was retranslocated to the root. This corresponds to between 35 and 85% of the label actually recovered in the roots. Analysis of 15N-labelling of xylem sap collected from receiver roots at growth stages I to IV indicated that about half of the reduced N in the sap is derived from cycling through roots of recently assimilated N. Evidence of cycling was also obtained at stage V. Labelled sulphate was the only form of S cycled in the plant, but it accounted for only 1 to 7% of the sulphate in the xylem sap.