Progress in research on iron nutrition and interactions in plants

Abstract

Iron is an essential microelement for plants and can be a limiting or toxic element according to the environmental growth conditions. Plants have therefore developed a large range of physiological mechanisms to cope with Fe deficiency or Fe overload. The application of molecular biological methods have shed light on the genes, gene products and regulatory mechanisms involved in Fe stress responses, however, the acquisition of physiological data now begins to lagg behind the progress gained by molecular approaches. This review highlights and summarizes the recent progress in plant iron research achieved from the molecular level to the field scale, communicated at the “XIIth International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plams” held in 2004 in Tokyo. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.