Response to Phosphate Deficiency in Bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) Roots. Respiratory Metabolism, Sugar Localization and Changes in Ultrastructure of Bean Root Cells

Bean plants (Phaseolus vulgarisL. ‘Zlota Saxa’)were cultured on complete (+P) or phosphate-deficient (-P) nutrientmedium. A large increase in glucose concentration was foundin the meristematic zone of -P roots compared to control roots.The increased glucose concentration in the meristematic zonedid not influence total respiration rate. Glucose or uncoupler(carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone) failed to increasethe respiration rate in -P root segments, but stimulated respirationin +P roots. The ultrastructure of cortical cells from the meristematicroot zone showed marked differences between +P and -P plants.Large vacuoles, invaginations of the plasmalemma and condensedforms of mitochondria were dominating features in cortical cellsof -P roots. Analysis of extracts after treating roots withdimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) indicated different localization ofsugars in the cell compartments. In roots of -P plants, mostof the reducing sugars were detected in the cytoplasm fractionwhile most sucrose was in the vacuole. Observations of the effectof 10% DMSO on cell ultrastructure indicated partial destructionof the plasmalemma but not the tonoplast. The localization ofreducing sugars in secondary vacuoles or plasmalemma invaginationsin the cells from the meristematic region of -P roots is discussed.Copyright1998 Annals of Botany Company. Bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.), roots, Pi deficiency, respiration, meristematic zone, ultrastructure, sugar efflux, reducing sugars and sucrose localization.     

Trading safety for food: evidence from gut contents in roach and bleak captured at different distances offshore from their daytime littoral refuge

1. Regular diel habitat shifts in roach were detected by hydro‐acoustics in five moderately eutrophic, stratifying (maximum depth 24–27 m) and approximately circular lakes (of surface area 15, 75, 125, 300 and 900 ha and diameters 250, 600, 1000, 1700 and 2600 m) in north‐eastern Poland in the years 1998–2000, when the lakes were free of smelt and other typical offshore planktivores, and their offshore areas were completely free of fish during the day. 2. The diel change in roach distribution was shown to assume a similar pattern in each lake: fish migrated from a daytime littoral refuge towards the centre of the lake at dusk, and returned to the littoral refuge at dawn. After sunset, fish gradually dispersed offshore until they covered the entire lake area in each of the three smaller lakes. In each of the two larger lakes, only small numbers of fish were seen in the central area at night, implying that the centre of the lake retained high food availability throughout the summer. 3. Inshore–offshore gradients in zooplankton prey density, body size, and numbers of eggs per clutch were weak or undetectable in the two smallest lakes, but strong and persistent in the three larger lakes, with Daphnia densities 5–30 times as high and body length 1.2–1.5 times as great in the central area as inshore. 4. The likely increase in the potential predation risk with distance from the littoral daytime refuge was found to be compensated by increased food gains in those fish which moved offshore at dusk to feed within a short time window, when light intensity was lower to make the risk reduced, but still high enough to see zooplankton prey. The benefit because of increased prey acquisition was greatest in the centre of the largest lake (at 1300 m from the shore), as revealed from gut inspections of roach and bleak trawl‐sampled at different distances from the edge of the reed belt, and seen as a gradual, order‐of‐magnitude increase in the volume of food in the foregut, The food volume against distance‐from‐shore regression was highly significant on each of the four sampling dates in the largest lake, in spite of the wide variability of food volume in individual fish.