Nitrate Translocation by Detopped Corn Seedlings

Abstract

Five-day-old seedlings of corn (Zeα mays L.) grown without nitrate were decapitated and exposed to 0.5 mm KNO₃ or 0.5 mm KCl in aerated solutions at 30 C. Uptake of nitrate, chloride, and potassium was determined by replacing solutions hourly and measuring their depletion. Translocation of these ions and of organic nitrogen was determined by hourly analysis of the vascular exudate. Nitrate reduction was estimated by the difference between nitrate uptake and nitrate recovered in the tissue and exudate. Nitrate uptake exhibited its usual pattern of apparent induction resulting in the development of an accelerated uptake phase. Chloride uptake remained fairly constant throughout the experimental period. Translocation of nitrate increased progressively for at least 7 hours whereas chloride translocation reached a maximum about the 3d hour and then declined to a lower rate than nitrate translocation. Nitrate uptake and translocation were restricted by anaerobiosis, by 20 and 40 C relative to 30 C, and by 0.05 mm 6-methylpurine, an RNA-synthesis inhibitor. Accumulation, reduction and translocation of nitrate had different sensitivities to all these factors. The effect of 0.05 mm 6-methylpurine was more detrimental to nitrate translocation and nitrate reduction than to nitrate uptake.