Phosphate fluxes, compartmentation and vacuolar speciation in root cortex cells of intact Agrostis capillaris seedlings: effect of non-toxic levels of aluminium

From compartmental analysis of ³²P elution measurements, concentrationsand fluxes of orthophosphate were estimated for root corticalcells of intact seedlings of the indigenous grass Agrostis capillarisL. cv. Highland when in complete nutrient solution containing10 mmol m^–3 or 100 mmol m^–3 phosphate with or without3.7 and 37 mmol m^–3 Al, respectively, during loading andelution. When plotted as counts min^–1 remaining in thetissue as a function of time, the data failed to meet the criteriafor first order kinetics. Transformation of the data to meetthe kinetic criteria gave corrected values for compartmentalconcentrations and fluxes of phosphate, and estimates of theotherwise unresolved slowly exchanging compartment within thevacuole considered to be the cause of the discrepancy in fluxanalysis. In the control, the discrepancy was considered dueto sequestration of phosphate with Ca in the vacuole and a small,but not significant, increase in sequestered P occurred in thepresence of Al, the presence of which was confirmed by X-raymicroanalysis. A chemical speciation model was used to demonstrate,for various values of pH and carboxylic acid concentration,the possibility that phosphate was precipitated in root cellvacuoles as Ca and Al phosphates (hydroxy-apatite and variscite).The ecological significance of the ability of A. capillarisplants to make efficient use of scarce P resources by minimizingthe sequestration of P by Al in vacuoles, compared with Loliumperenne, was recognized. Key words: Phosphate sequestration, phosphate use efficiency, X-ray microanalysis, super-saturation