Enhancement of ferric-mugineic acid uptake by iron deficient barley roots in the presence of excess free mugineic acid in the medium

To investigate the mechanism of mugineic acid-Fe^III uptake by barley roots, plasma membrane fractions were isolated from Fe-deficient barley roots using an aqueous two-phase partition method. Utilizing the plasma membrane vesicles, we developed an assay system for studying mugineic acid-⁵⁵Fe^III binding to the plasma membrane. However, no efficient active transport of mugineic acid-⁵⁵Fe^III into the plasma membrane vesicle was detected, because of large amount of non-specific adsorption of ⁵⁵Fe^III onto the vesicle. And the adsorption could be decreased by adding excess amount of free mugineic acid to the assay system. From the results it is speculated that an excess of free mugineic acids is necessary in the medium for effective uptake of mugineic acid-Fe^III by Fe-deficient barley roots. Support for this speculation came from a multi-compartment transport box experiment with excised roots of Fe-deficient barley.Abbreviations CCCP carbonylcyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone - MA mugineic acid