Abstract
Irrigation with saline water occurs in many semi-arid regions of the world, where it decreases the growth and yields of crop plants. There is general agreement that whole plant growth responses to salinity are multigenic and that a better knowledge of the underlying physiology is required, in order to understand why some plants are more resistant than others. It has been hypothesised that plant growth is initially inhibited by cellular responses to the osmotic effect of external salt, but in a later response, growth is inhibited by the toxic effect of excessive salt accumulation within the plant. In our experiments, we have centred our attention on the effects of NaCl on water channels and their role in the response of plants to salinity. Firstly, pepper plants were stressed with two isotonic solutions: NaCl and increased macronutrients of the Hoagland nutrient solution (HNS). Our results suggested that the putative reduction in water channel function of NaCl-treated plants did not seem to be due to the osmotic effect. In other experiments we showed that the ameliorative effect of Ca2+ on NaCl stressed melon plants could be related to water channel function. Also, osmotic water permeability (Pf) measurements were carried out on protoplasts treated with NaCl plus okadaic acid (an inhibitor of phosphatase activity). The results showed that the negative effect of NaCl on water channel activity was not due to a high ion concentration effect on channel pores or to the increase in osmotic pressure.
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Carvajal, M., Martínez-Ballesta, M., Martínez, V. (2000). The Response of Plants to Salinity Involves Root Water Channels. In: Hohmann, S., Nielsen, S. (eds) Molecular Biology and Physiology of Water and Solute Transport. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1203-5_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1203-5_36
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5439-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1203-5
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