Root respiratory quotient and nitrate uptake in hydroponically grown non-mycorrhizal and mycorrhizal wheat

Abstract

Oxygen and CO2 fluxes were measured in hydroponically grown mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal Triticum aestivum L. cv. Hano roots. The NO3– uptake of the plants was used to estimate the amount of root respiration attributable to ion uptake. Plants were grown at 4 mM N and 10 μM P, where a total and viable mycorrhizal root colonisation of 48% and 18%, respectively, by Glomus mosseae (Nicol. and Gerd.) Gerd. and Trappe (BEG 107) was observed. The O2 consumption and NO3– uptake rates were similar and the CO2 release was higher in mycorrhizal than in non-mycorrhizal wheat. This resulted in a significantly higher respiratory quotient (RQ, mol CO2 mol–1 O2) in mycorrhizal (1.27±0.13) than in non-mycorrhizal (0.79±0.05) wheat. As the biomass and N and P concentrations in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal wheat were the same, the higher RQ resulted from the mycorrhizal colonisation and not differences in nutrition per se.