EFFECTS OF SULPHUR DEFICIENCY ON METABOLISM IN TOMATO

Plant sulfur nutrition: From Sachs to Big Data

Together with water and carbon dioxide plants require 14 essential mineral nutrients to finish their life cycle. The research in plant nutrition can be traced back to Julius Sachs, who was the first to experimentally prove the essentiality of mineral nutrients for plants. Among those elements Sachs showed to be essential is sulfur. Plant sulfur nutrition has been not as extensively studied as the nutrition of nitrogen and phosphate, probably because sulfur was not limiting for agriculture. However, with the reduction of atmospheric sulfur dioxide emissions sulfur deficiency has become common. The research in sulfur nutrition has changed over the years from using yeast and algae as experimental material to adopting Arabidopsis as the plant model as well as from simple biochemical measurements of individual parameters to system biology. Here the evolution of sulfur research from the times of Sachs to the current Big Data is outlined.

Development of tuberous roots and sugar accumulation as related to invertase activity and mineral nutrition

Sucrose storage in tuberous roots was not observed when the tissues had very high activities of acid invertase. High activities of the enzyme were always present in the roots at early stages of their development. In species where the activity of the enzyme decreased during root development, sucrose was stored. Thus, acid invertase was undetectable in mature roots of carrots (Daucus carota L.) where sucrose formed almost 80% of the dry matter. Conversely, radish (Raphanus sativus L.) and turnip (Brassica rapa L.) roots, in which the activity of the enzyme remained high until maturity, did not store appreciable amounts of sucrose (2% and 9%, respectively, of the dry matter in the mature roots), reducing sugars being the main reserve (more than 80% of the dry matter in mature turnips). The correlation between sucrose content and acid invertase activity was furthermore evident in both sucrose- and hexose-storing roots when the activity of this enzyme was affected by changes in the mineral nutrition. Deficiencies of nitrogen and sulphur reduced the activity of acid and alkaline invertases and led to increase in sucrose content and decrease in reducing sugars. However, the decline of alkaline invertase activity in tissues low in acid invertase had no clear effect on sugar content. Sodium chloride (10(-1)M) affected acid invertase and sugars in a manner similar to that of the two deficiencies, but had practically no effect on alkaline invertase. The changes in sugar content produced by the variations in mineral nutrition were small in hexose-storing roots in relation to those of sucrose-storing roots. It is possible that this result is related to the different levels of acid invertase in the two types of roots.

Accumulation of sulfite by a sulfate-using revertant of Salmonella pullorum

Sulfate-utilizing revertants of a cysteine auxotroph of Salmonella pullorum have been found that cause an accumulation in growth medium of a sulfur compound more oxidized than sulfide. The sulfur compound was presumptively identified as sulfite by the formation of a colored complex in the presence of basic fuchsin and formaldehyde, oxidation to sulfate by peroxide, and acid-volatility. The acid-volatile material was identified as sulfite by formation of an S-sulfonyl derivative of 5,5'-dithio-bis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) which was chromatographically and electrophoretically identical to an authentic S-sulfonyl derivative. The presence of sulfate in minimal medium is required for sulfite accumulation, and both cysteine and selenate inhibit the accumulation. No evidence was obtained to indicate that a reduced sulfur compound was the precursor of the accumulated sulfite.

The Absorption and Translocation of Sulfur in Red Kidney Bean

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SULPHUR NUTRITION OF COTTON

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SULPHUR CONTENT OF SEEDS AND SEED WEIGHT IN RELATION TO EFFECTS OF SULPHUR DEFICIENCY ON GROWTH OF SUNFLOWER PLANTS

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RESPIRATION AND METABOLISM IN ETIOLATED WHEAT SEEDLINGS AS INFLUENCED BY PHOSPHORUS NUTRITION

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