Mechanisms of Nutrient uptake of

plant root cells from soil

Presented by
M. Shravan kumar
M.Sc. Agronomy - 1st year
RAM/16 – 03.
 PASSIVE / NON – MEDIATED UPTAKE

 Passive absorption : It is the absorption of minerals

without direct expenditure of metabollic energy .
 Also called as the Non mediated uptake .
In passive absorption
1. mineral salt absorption is not affected by
temperature and metabollic inhibitors .
2. Rapid uptake of ion occures when plant tissues are
transferred from a medium of low concentration to higher
concentration.
Passive absorption may takes place by 5
mechansims
1. Mass flow
2. Diffusion.
3.Root interception
4 . Ion Exchange
a) The contact exchange theory
b) the carbonic acid theory
5 . Gannon equilibrium ..
 1 . Mass flow : is the movement of plant
nutrients along with water to the roots .
 It is a convective process in which plant
nutrient ions and other dissolved substances are
transported in the flow of water to the root due to
transpirational water uptake by the plant.
Some mass flow can also occur due to
evaporation and percolation of soil water
Movement of ions in the soil solution to
the surfaces of roots is an important factor in
satisfying the nutrient requirement of plants. This
movement is accomplished largely by mass flow
and diffusion.
• Karmer (1956) , Russel ( 1960 ) believe that
ions are absorbed by the root along with the
mass flow of water taking place under the
influence of transpiration.
• Lopushinsky ( 1964) working with detopped
plants supported the concept that an increase
in transpiration could increase the absorption
of salts ..
Mass flow
Mass flow & root interception &
Diffusion
2. Diffusion: Diffusion process operates when an ion
moves from an area of high concentration to one of
low concentration by random thermal motion.
 As plant roots absorb nutrients from the surrounding
soil solution, a diffusion gradient is set up.
 A high plant requirement or a high root “absorbing
power” results in a strong sink or a high diffusion
gradient favouring ion transport.
 Mainly 3 soil factors which influence the movement of
nutrient ions into the root through diffusion namely
diffusion coefficient, concentration of the nutrient in
the soil solution and the buffering capacity of the solid
phase of the soil for the nutrient in the soil solution
phase.
 Diffusion comes into operation when the concentration
at the root surface is either higher or lower than that of
the surrounding solution.
o It is directed towards the root when the concentration
at the root surface is decreased, and away from the
roots when it is increased.
 Diffusion follows Fick's first law: F = -D . dc/dx

 F =Diffusion rate (quantity diffused per unit cross

section and per unit time),
 dc/dx =concentration gradient
 C=concentration
 D = diffusion coefficient
 x =distance
The concentration of certain ions under some conditions
may build up at the root surface because the root is
unable to absorb ions at a sufficiently faster rate.
Under such conditions the phenomenon of
“back diffusion” occurs due to concentration gradient
where the movement of certain ions will be away from
the root surface and back toward the soil solution.
• Normally such a condition will not occur, but as root do
not absorb all nutrient ions at the same rate, there may
on occasion be a buildup of those ions that are less
rapidly absorbed, particularly during period of rapid
absorption of moisture by the plant.
 If diffusion is the main process by which a plant nutrient
is transported to the root surface, the quantity of the
nutrient absorbed by the root can be described
approximately by the following equation (Drew et at.
1969):

Q=2 π a α c t
Q = Quantity of nutrient absorbed per cm root
length
a = Root radius in cm
α = Nutrient absorbing power of the root in cm root
length
c = Average nutrient concentration at the root surface
t =Time of nutrient absorption.
• Nutrients taken up rapidly by plant roots and which are
generally present in the soil solution in low
concentrations such as NH4 +, K+, and phosphate are
mainly transported to plant roots by diffusion.
The contribution of mass flow to the
transport of these nutrients can be calculated as the
product of solution concentration and transpiration rate.
Values thus obtained are far too low to meet the needs
of the plant in any of these elements (Barber et at. 1963).
Diffusion also dominates when transpiration is low.
Mass flow plays an important role for nutrients present
in soil solution in high concentration and when
transpiration is high.
Occasionally ion accumulations can even occur
around roots as is sometimes the case with Ca2+
(Barber 1974). In the case of N03 -, transport can
take place either by mass flow or diffusion.
 Investigations of Strebel et at. (1983) with sugar
beet have shown that under field conditions at
the beginning of the growth period mass flow is
the major process in transporting N03 - towards
plant roots.
 In the later stages of growth, however, when
the N03 - concentration in the soil solution is low,
diffusion becomes the more important process.
Nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium
are absorbed strongly by soils and are only
present in small quantities in the soil solution.
These nutrients move to the root by
diffusion.

 Diffusion is responsible for the majority of the

P, K and Zn moving to the root for uptake.
3. Root Interception:
• Root interception is the extension (growth) of
plant roots into new soil areas where there are
untapped supplies of nutrients in the soil solution.
All these three processes are in constant
operation during growth.
• As the root system develops and exploits the soil
more completely, soil solution and soil surfaces
retaining adsorbed ions are exposed to the root
mass and absorption of these ions by the contact
exchange phenomenon is accomplished.
• For a nutrient element to cross a cell
membrane into the cell, it is necessary for
each nutrient element to be attached to some
carrier. The carrier nutrient complex can pass
through the membrane into the cell.
• The necessary carriers are different for many
of the nutrients. Some nutrient elements can
be partially but not entirely excluded from
absorption, others can be preferentially
absorbed, even against a concentration
gradient.
• 4. Ion Exchange : In ionic exchange mechanism
,,anions or cations from within cells are exchanged
with anions or cations of equivalent charge of the
external solution. The process of ion exchange can
be explained by 2 theories .
• A) the contact exchange theory : according to this
theory an ion may be absorbed by the plant root
without being first dissolved in the soil solution .
• An ion adsorbed electrostatically to a solid particle
such as plant root or clay particle , is not held too
tightly ,,but oscillates within a certain small volume
of space ..Exchange of ions takes place when the
oscillation volume of one ion overlaps the
oscillation volume of another ion .
Today it is well known that the plasmalemma pumps h
H ions out of the cell into the root medium.
This H+ released by the pump, however, does
not come in direct contact with the surface of clay
minerals . shows the sites and dimensions of the cell
membrane (plasmalemma) and the surface of a clay
mineral. It is evident that, if at all, only cations at the
very outer surface of the cell wall can exchange for
cations adsorbed to the clay mineral.
By an exchange of H+ from the cell wall, K+
or other cation species can be mobilized from a clay
mineral .
Even if this does occur, however, the
exchanged K+ is still at the outer surface of the cell wall
of an epidermal cell and far from the real sites of
uptake systems located in the outer cell membrane
(plasmalemma).
Cation exchange
• The thickness of a cell wall is in the range of 500 to 1000
nm. There is no evidence that K+ is able to move across the
cell wall by further exchange processes but rather moves by
diffusion from the soil solution adjacent to the cell wall
surface along pores and intercellular spaces to the plasma
membrane.
• The carboxyl and phosphate groups of the cell wall
structures represent a strong buffer to the H+ released by
the plasmalemma H+ pump
Ion uptake mechanisms
B ) Carbonic acid exchange theory : according to this
theory CO2 released during the respiration of root cells
combines with water to form carbonic acid ..Carbonic
acid dissociates into H+ ions may be exchanged for cations
adsorbed on clay particles .
the cations thus released into the soil solution
from the clay particles ,,may be adsorbed on root cells in
exchange for H+ ions or as ion pairs with bicarbonate ..
 Thus soil solution plays an important role in Carbonic acid
exchange theory. Ion exchange theory allows faster rate of
absorption of ions from the external medium by the cells
of the root .
Carbonic acid exchange theory
4. Donnans’ Equilibrium Theory of Ion Uptake:
• The accumulation of ions inside the cells without involving
expenditure of the metabolic energy can be explained by
Donnan’s equilibrium theory.
 According to this theory there are certain pre-existing ions
inside the cell which cannot diffuse outside through
membrane. Such ions are called as indiffusible or fixed
ions. However, the membrane is permeable to both anions
and cations of the outer solutions.
 Suppose there are certain fixed anions in the cell which is in
contact with outer solution containing anions and cations.
Normally equal number of anions and cations would have
diffused into the cell through an electrical potential to
balance each other, but to balance the fixed anions more
cations will diffuse into the plant cell.
• This equilibrium is known as Donnan’s equilibrium.
In this particular case, there would be an
accumulation of cations inside the cell. If however,
there are fixed cations inside the plant cell, the
Donnan’s equilibrium will result in the accumulation
of anions inside the plant cell.
 ACTIVE OR MEDIATED UPTAKE OF
IONS
 The concentration of ions in the cytoplasm is often much
higher than that in soil solution ,,in extreme cases
,,10,000 fold higher ..Therefore ,,the roots must be able
to take up ions againest a considerable concentration
gradient . Uptake againest a concentration gradient or
strictly speaking , againest an electrochemical gradient
requires metabollic energy ,,and the process is called
active uptake..
 At present there are 2 principal theories of ion transport
across the membrane
1. The carrier theory
2 . Ion pump theory .
1. Carrier theory :
 Carrier is commonly used to refer to an agent
responsible for transporting ions from one side of the
membrane to the other .
Carriers have properties similer to those of
enzymes , but unlike enzymes ,carriers have not been
isolated and characterized .
• Isolation of a carrier will not necessarily entail its
removal from the membrane, but there is no way of
measurig its activity .
• In the transport process a carrier meets the particular
ions for which it has affinity ,, form a carrier ion
complex ,, and moves across the membrane .
• The enzyme phosphatage ,, which is located at the inner
membrane boundary ,, splits off phosphate group from
the carrier complex ,,and the ion is released
In this process of ion transport energy is required and
involvement of ATP is reported .
 The ATP is generated from ADP plus inorganic
phosphate ( Pi) via respiration ( Oxidative
phosphorylation )
• The whole uptake may be described as follows ( Mengel
and kirkby ,,1982)
 Carrier + ATP → Carrier p + ADP
 Carrier p + ion → Carrier p – ion complex
 Carrier p – ion complex →carrier + pi + ion ( in the
presence of phosphatage)
 Net ion + ATP →Ion + ADP + pi
The carrier theory
2 . ATP ase theory of ion transport :
Hodges proposed the ATP ase theory of ion transport in
plants .
• ATP ase is a group of enzymes that have the capacity to
dissociate ATP into ADP and inorganic phosphate.
• Energy liberated by this process can be utilized in ion
transport across the membrane . In plants the
phenomenon is known as the activity of ATP ,,which is
associated with the plasmalemma and is activated by
cations
• A detailed description of this process of ion transport is
given by Hodges ,,Mengel and kirkby , and clarkson.
ATP ase theory of ion uptake
Table 1 : Percentages of nutrient supply to the plant roots
from soil solution

Nutrient Root Mass flow Diffusion

interception movement
Percentages in supply
N 1 99 0
P 2 4 94
K 2 20 78
Ca 12 88 0
Mg 27 73 0
S 4 94 2

(Halvin et al ,,2005.)
Table 2 .Ion absorption and proton extrusion by banana roots

Bruno et al ,,2005 ,U.P

Table 3 .Ion absorption and proton extrusion by banana roots

Bruno et al ,,2005 ,U.P

 Table 4 . Kinetics of chloride ions absorption by plant sprouts in
the presence of NaNO3, Ca(NO3)2 and NaSO4

concentration 100 Mm Nacl

Ca(NO3)2 (mM)
Control 3.1 ± 0.1
50 2.3 ± 0.08
100 1.7 ± 0.07
150 1.1 ± 0.05
200 0.6 ± 0.04

The decrease of Cl - ions (mg) from the solution of 100 mM NaC1

as a result of their absorption by the roots of barley during 20 min ( t -
20°C).

Bashir et al ,, 2012 , Cameroon

 Fig 5 . Absorption of chloride ions by the roots of Barley from the
solution of 100 mM NaC1 in the presence of NaNO3 and Ca(NO3)2 ..

Bashir et al ,, 2012 , Cameroon

 Fig.6 . ( 4 ) Quantity of the absorbed Cl - ions out of solutions
100mm (a) and 50mm (b) NaCl by roots of barley depending on
temperature within 160minutes.

1 –1 C 2 – 10 C 3 – 20 c ( control ) 4 – 30 C 5 - 40 C
Int Jr. of Agril innovations and research,,2009 ,,3 ( 5 ) Vilayet , 2005
 Fig7 . K content in sunflower seedlings under different Nacl
concentrations

Agril. Science and Tech Vol .12 no. 3 ,,2011.. Yang et al ,, Beijing ,,China
.
 Fig 8 . Mg content in sunflower seedlings under different Nacl
concentrations

Agril. Science and Tech Vol .12 no. 3 ,,2011.. Yang et al ,, Beijing ,,China .
 Fig 9 . Ca content in sunflower seedlings under different Nacl
concentrations

Agril. Science and Tech Vol .12 no. 3 ,,2011.. Yang et al ,, Beijing ,,China .
 Fig 10 . Na content in sunflower seedlings under different
Nacl concentrations

Agril. Science and Tech Vol .12 no. 3 ,,2011.. Yang et al ,, Beijing ,,China .
 Fig 11 . Evaluation potential of Lemna triscula in the
absorption of Zn.

Environment conservational journal ,,2012 ,,vol 11 no 3 Krupa et al,,China

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