Linking development and determinacy with organic acid efflux from proteoid roots of white lupin grown with low phosphorus and ambient or elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration

Abstract

White lupin (Lupinus albus L.) was grown in hydroponic culture with 1 &mgr;M phosphorus to enable the development of proteoid roots to be observed in conjunction with organic acid exudation. Discrete regions of closely spaced, determinate secondary laterals (proteoid rootlets) emerged in near synchrony on the same plant. One day after reaching their final length (4 mm), citrate exudation occurred over a 3-d pulse. The rate of exudation varied diurnally, with maximal rates during the photoperiod. At the onset of citrate efflux, rootlets had exhausted their apical meristems and had differentiated root hairs and vascular tissues along their lengths. Neither in vitro phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase nor citrate synthase activity was correlated with the rate of citrate exudation. We suggest that an unidentified transport process, presumably at the plasma membrane, regulates citrate efflux. Growth with elevated (700 &mgr;L L-1) atmospheric [CO2] promoted earlier onset of rootlet determinacy by 1 d, resulting in shorter rootlets and citrate export beginning 1 d earlier as a 2-d diurnal pulse. Citrate was the dominant organic acid exported, and neither the rate of exudation per unit length of root nor the composition of exudate was altered by atmospheric [CO2].