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Nutrient accumulation in leaves of Fe-deficient cucumber plants treated with natural Fe complexes

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Abstract

Plants mainly rely on a mixture of Fe complexes with different organic ligands, like carboxylates and soluble fractions of water-extractable humic substances (WEHSs), to sustain the supply of this micronutrient. It has been demonstrated that the Fe-WEHS complex is more efficiently acquired by plant roots as it enhances functionality of the mechanisms involved in Fe acquisition at the root and leaf levels, allowing a faster recovery of the Fe-deficiency symptoms. The aim of this work is to verify whether this recovery involves also the allocation and accumulation of nutrients other than Fe to and within the leaf tissues. Iron-deficient plants treated with Fe-WEHS recovered more quickly the functionality both to uptake nitrate at the root level and to fixate CO2 in the leaves than those supplied with Fe-citrate. Concomitantly, Fe-WEHS-treated plants also accumulated other cationic nutrients faster and at a higher extent. Synchrotron 2D-scanning μ-X-ray fluorescence analyses of the leaves revealed that the recovery promotes a change in the allocation of these nutrients from the vascular system (K, Cu, and Zn) or trichomes (Ca and Mn) to the entire leaf blade. Fe-WEHS treatment efficiently promotes the recovery from Fe-deficiency-induced chlorosis with an enhanced allocation of other nutrients into the leaves and promoting their distribution into the entire leaf blade.

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Acknowledgments

Research was supported by grants from Italian MIUR (FIRB-Programma “Futuro in Ricerca”) and Free University of Bolzano (TN5056). Synchrotron experiments at HASYLAB were financially supported by the European Community-Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area” Program I (Integrating Activity on Synchrotron and Free Electron Laser Science; project: contract RII3-CT-2004-506008). The authors acknowledge support from the Hercules fund, Brussels (grant A11/0387), and from FWO (Brussels) via grant G.0C12.13.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, University of Udine, via delle Scienze 208, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Nicola Tomasi, Laura Zanin & Roberto Pinton

  2. Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Tanja Mimmo & Stefano Cesco

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia e Chimica Agro-forestale e Ambientale, University of Bari, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Roberto Terzano

  4. Photon Science, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany

    Matthias Alfeld

  5. Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Koen Janssens

  6. Dipartimento di Biotecnologie, University of Verona, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Zeno Varanini

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  1. Nicola Tomasi
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  2. Tanja Mimmo
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  8. Zeno Varanini
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  9. Stefano Cesco
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Correspondence to Stefano Cesco.

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Tomasi, N., Mimmo, T., Terzano, R. et al. Nutrient accumulation in leaves of Fe-deficient cucumber plants treated with natural Fe complexes. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 973–982 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-014-0919-6

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