Regulation of iron and zinc uptake and translocation in rice

Abstract

Higher plants take up essential nutrients from the rhizosphere, in which several nutrients tend to be insoluble, thus limiting their availability. Deficiencies of the micronutrients Fe and Zn constitute major factors in low crop yield. Based on their mechanisms of Fe acquisition from the soil, higher plants can be grouped into two categories: Strategy-I and Strategy-II plants (Römheld and Marschner 1986). Plants in the second group, graminaceous plants, secrete mugineic acid family phytosiderophores (MAs), which solubilize Fe(III) in the rhizosphere, and the resulting Fe(III)-MA complexes are taken up by roots through a specific transporter in the plasma membrane (Takagi 1976; Curie et al. 2001).