Philip J White

..The closing of stomatal guard cells in the presence of abscisic acid (ABA) is used to illustrate the co-ordination of Ca(2+) channel activities during a physiological response...

..Thus, it may effect cytosolic Ca(2+) homeostasis by contributing to the basal Ca(2+) influx required to balance Ca(2+) efflux from the cytoplasm through ATP- and proton-coupled Ca(2+) transporters under steady-state conditions...

..As the understanding of the biology of fruit ripening has improved, so has the ability to improve the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of fruits through crop management, breeding or biotechnology...

..Two candidate gene families, of cyclic-nucleotide gated channels (CNGC) and ionotropic glutamate receptor (GLR) homologues, are proposed as the genetic correlates of voltage-independent cation (VIC) channels...

..This is also compatible with the observed correlation between transpiration rate and calcium delivery to the shoot...

....

..Future functional analyses of genes identified as differentially expressed in the shoots of these closely related species will improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of Zn hyperaccumulation...

..Shoot C and cation concentration correlated negatively at a species level. Species within the Poales and the Caryophyllales had distinct shoot mineralogies in both the designed experiment and in the ecological survey...

..This is consistent with Cs intoxication resulting from competition between K+ and Cs+ for K(+)-binding sites on essential proteins...

..Significant quantitative trait loci associated with shoot-P and PUE occur on chromosomes C3 and C7. These data provide information to initiate breeding programmes to improve PUE in B. oleracea...

..However, the use of P fertilizers is unsustainable and may cause pollution. Consequently, there is a need to develop more P-use-efficient (PUE) crops and precise methods to monitor crop P-status...

..Transferring this technology to crops would allow precision management of P fertilization, thereby maintaining yields while reducing costs, conserving natural resources, and preventing pollution...

..This review looks at the evidence for the involvement of phloem sucrose in co-ordinating plant responses to P starvation at both the transcriptional and physiological levels...

..In view of the largely successful fitting of the model to experimental data, the model was used to interpret the results. Suggestions for model improvement are made...

..Therefore, spraying Ca directly onto young fruits is recommended for the prevention of BER...

..In general, orders of commelinoid monocots had lower Ca contents than other monocot or eudicot orders. These results are used to illustrate how physiological and ecological hypotheses can be formulated using literature data...

..Varieties with increased mineral concentrations in their edible portions are already available, and new genotypes with higher mineral densities are being developed...

..They also suggest that Ca2+ release from intracellular stores contributes significantly to increasing [Ca2+]cyt upon acute salt stress...

..This may be explained, in part, by increased expression of AtHAK5 in the atakt1-1 mutant. It is concluded that AtHAK5 is a root plasma membrane uptake mechanism for K(+) and Cs(+) under conditions of low K(+) availability...

..There is also evidence that pleiotropic loci on C8 and C9 affect shoot Ca and Mg. Map-based cloning of these loci will reveal how shoot-level phenotypes relate to Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) uptake and homeostasis at the molecular level...

....

....

..In mature epidermal cells, NSCC-mediated Ca2+ influx dominates whereas in specialised root cells (root hairs and elongation zone cells) where elevated [Ca2+]cyt activates HACCs, HACC-mediated Ca2+ influx predominates...

..Identifying mechanisms by which different plant families control their leaf elemental concentration remains a challenge...

....

....