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Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics

Roots of higher plants provide the shoot with nutrients and water. In exchange, they receive photosynthates, which serve both as energy source and building blocks for maintenance and growth. While studies in plant bioenergetics used to focus on photosynthesis, several more recent findings also arous...

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Autor principal: Wegner, Lars H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9424547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36051301
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.853309
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author Wegner, Lars H.
author_facet Wegner, Lars H.
author_sort Wegner, Lars H.
collection PubMed
description Roots of higher plants provide the shoot with nutrients and water. In exchange, they receive photosynthates, which serve both as energy source and building blocks for maintenance and growth. While studies in plant bioenergetics used to focus on photosynthesis, several more recent findings also aroused or renewed interest in energy conversion and allocation in roots. Root building costs were identified as a long-undervalued trait, which turned out to be highly relevant for stress tolerance and nutrient use efficiency. Reduced building costs per root length (e.g., by aerenchyma formation or by increasing the cell size) are beneficial for exploring the soil for nutrient-rich patches, especially in low-input agrosystems. Also, an apparent mismatch was frequently found between the root energy budget in the form of the ATP pool on the one side and the apparent costs on the other side, particularly the costs of membrane transport under stress conditions, e.g., the Na(+) detoxification costs resulting from Na(+) sequestration at the plasma membrane. Ion transport across the plasma membrane (and also endomembranes) is coupled to the proton motive force usually believed to be exclusively generated by H(+) ATPases. Recently, an alternative mechanism, the biochemical pH clamp, was identified which relies on H(+) formation and binding in the apoplast and the cytosol, respectively, driven by metabolism (so-called active buffering). On this background, several aspects of root bioenergetics are discussed. These are (1) root respiration in soil, with a critical view on calorimetric vs. gas exchange measurements; (2) processes of energy conversion in mitochondria with a special focus on the role of the alternative oxidases, which allow adjusting carbon flow through metabolic pathways to membrane transport processes; and (3) energy allocation, in particular to transport across the plasma membrane forming the interface to soil solution. A concluding remark is dedicated to modeling root bioenergetics for optimizing further breeding strategies. Apparent “energy spoilers” may bestow the plant with a yet unidentified advantage only unfolding their beneficial effect under certain environmental conditions.
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spelling pubmed-94245472022-08-31 Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics Wegner, Lars H. Front Plant Sci Plant Science Roots of higher plants provide the shoot with nutrients and water. In exchange, they receive photosynthates, which serve both as energy source and building blocks for maintenance and growth. While studies in plant bioenergetics used to focus on photosynthesis, several more recent findings also aroused or renewed interest in energy conversion and allocation in roots. Root building costs were identified as a long-undervalued trait, which turned out to be highly relevant for stress tolerance and nutrient use efficiency. Reduced building costs per root length (e.g., by aerenchyma formation or by increasing the cell size) are beneficial for exploring the soil for nutrient-rich patches, especially in low-input agrosystems. Also, an apparent mismatch was frequently found between the root energy budget in the form of the ATP pool on the one side and the apparent costs on the other side, particularly the costs of membrane transport under stress conditions, e.g., the Na(+) detoxification costs resulting from Na(+) sequestration at the plasma membrane. Ion transport across the plasma membrane (and also endomembranes) is coupled to the proton motive force usually believed to be exclusively generated by H(+) ATPases. Recently, an alternative mechanism, the biochemical pH clamp, was identified which relies on H(+) formation and binding in the apoplast and the cytosol, respectively, driven by metabolism (so-called active buffering). On this background, several aspects of root bioenergetics are discussed. These are (1) root respiration in soil, with a critical view on calorimetric vs. gas exchange measurements; (2) processes of energy conversion in mitochondria with a special focus on the role of the alternative oxidases, which allow adjusting carbon flow through metabolic pathways to membrane transport processes; and (3) energy allocation, in particular to transport across the plasma membrane forming the interface to soil solution. A concluding remark is dedicated to modeling root bioenergetics for optimizing further breeding strategies. Apparent “energy spoilers” may bestow the plant with a yet unidentified advantage only unfolding their beneficial effect under certain environmental conditions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9424547/ /pubmed/36051301 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.853309 Text en Copyright © 2022 Wegner. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Wegner, Lars H.
Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title_full Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title_fullStr Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title_full_unstemmed Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title_short Empowering roots—Some current aspects of root bioenergetics
title_sort empowering roots—some current aspects of root bioenergetics
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9424547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36051301
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.853309
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