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March
9, 2007 A new understanding
of how plants
manage their internal calcium levels could lead to modifying plants to
avoid
damage from acid rain. The pollutant disrupts calcium balance in plants
by
leaching significant amounts of the mineral from leaves as well as the
agricultural and forest soils the plants live in. "Our findings should
help
scientists understand how plant ecosystems respond to soil calcium
depletion
and to design appropriate strategies to protect the environment," said The research was
supported by the
National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and To grow, a plant
needs a reliable
supply of calcium, which enters the plant dissolved in water the roots
take in
from surrounding soil. As the water circulates through a plant,
dissolved
calcium gets shuttled where it is needed to give the plant's cells
their
structural rigidity. But calcium supplies coming into the plant cycle
up and
down over the course of the day, dropping to a minimum at night. "Calcium is a key
regulator
of vital physiological functions in both plants and animals," said
Maryanna Henkart, director of NSF's Division of Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences. "The discovery of the relationship between calcium in
soil,
in plant cells, and cellular mechanisms sheds new light on the role of
this
important mineral in plant growth and development." Plants use molecular
sensors and
flows of chemical messengers to detect and regulate the storage and
distribution of vital nutrients such as water and calcium. To track the
calcium
sensors in the laboratory plant According to Although acid rain
robs soil of
much of its calcium, enough is still left for plants to live on, "Some soils have
lost as
much as 75 percent of their calcium during the past century,"
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