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Involvement of K+ in Leaf Movements During Sun tracking Introduction Many plants orient their leaves in response to directional light signals. Heliotropic movements, or movements that are affected by the sun, are common among plants belonging to the families Malvaceae, Fabaceae, Nyctaginaceae, and Oxalidaceae. The leaves of many plants, including Crotalaria pallida, exhibit dia heliotropic movement. C.
pallida is a woody shrub native to South Africa. Its trifoliate leaves are connected to the petiole by 3 - 4 mm long pulvinule's (Schmalstig). In dia heliotropic movement, the plants leaves are oriented perpendicular to the suns rays, thereby maximizing the interception of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). In some plants, but not all, his response occurs particularly during the morning and late afternoon, when the light is coming at more of an angle and the water stress is not as severe (Donahue and Vogelmann). Under these conditions the lamina of the leaf is within less than 15? from the normal to the sun.
Many plants that exhibit dia heliotropic movements also show para heliotropic response as well. Para heliotropism minimizes water loss by reducing the amount of light absorbed by the leaves; the leaves orient themselves parallel to the suns rays. Plants that exhibit para heliotropic behavior usually do so at midday, when the suns rays are perpendicular to the ground. This reorientation takes place only in leaves of plants that are capable of nasty light-driven movements, such as the trifoliate leaf of Erythrina spp. (Herbert 1984). However, this phenomenon has been observed in other legume species that exhibit dia heliotropic leaf movement as well.
Their movement is temporarily transformed from dia heliotropic to para heliotropic. In doing so, the interception of solar radiation is maximized during the morning and late afternoon, and minimized during midday. The leaves of Crotalaria pallida also exhibit nyctinastic, or sleep, movements, in which the leaves fold down at night. The solar tracking may also provide a competitive advantage during early growth, since there is little shading, and also by intercepting more radiant heat in the early morning, thus raising leaf temperature nearer the optimum for photosynthesis. Integral to understanding the heliotropic movements of a plant is determining how the leaf detects the angle at which the light is incident upon it, how this perception is transducer to the pulvinus, and finally, how this signal can effect a physiological response (Donahue and Vogelmann).
In the species Crotalaria pallida, blue light seems to be the wavelength that stimulates these leaf movements (Scmalstig). It has been implicated in the photonastic unfolding of leaves and in the dia heliotropic response in Mactroptilium atropurpureum and Lupinus succulents (Schwartz, Gilboa, and Koller 1987). However, the light receptor involved can not be determined from the data. The site of light perception for Crotalaria pallida is the proximal portion of the lamina. No leaflet movement occurs when the lamina is shaded and only the pulvinus is exposed to light. However, in many other plant species, including Phaseolus vulgaris and Glycine max, the site of light perception is the pulvinus, although these plants are not true sun tracking plants.
The compound lamina of Lupinus succulents does not respond to a directional light signal if its pulling are shaded, but it does respond if only the pulling was exposed. That the pulvinus is the site for light perception was the accepted theory for many years. However, experiments with L. palaestinus showed that the proximal 3 - 4 mm of the lamina needed to be exposed for a dia heliotropic response to occur. If the light is detected by photoreceptors in the laminae, somehow this light signal must be transmitted to the cells of the pulvinus. There are three possible ways this may be done.
One is that the light is channeled to the pulvinus from the lamina. However, this is unlikely since an experiment with oblique light on the lamina and vertical light on the pulvinus resulted in the lamina responding to the oblique light. Otherwise, the light coming from the lamina would be drowned out by the light shining on the pulvinus. Another possibility is that some electrical signal is transmitted from the lamina to the pulvinus as in Mimosa.
It is also possible that some chemical is transported from the lamina to the pulvinus via the phloem. These chemicals can be defined as naturally occuring molecules that affect some physiological process of the plant. They may be active in concentrations as low as 10 - 5 to 10 - 7 M solution. What chemical, if any, is used by C.
pallida to transmit the light signal from the lamina of the leaflet to its pulvinus is unknown. Periodic leaf movement factor 1 (PLMF 1) has been isolated from Acacia karroo, a plant with pinnate leaves that exhibits nychinastic sleep movements, as well as other species of Acacia, Oxalis, and Samanea. PLNF 1 has also been isolated from Mimosa pubic, as has the molecule M-LMF 5 (Schildknecht). The movement of the leaflets is effected by the swelling and shrinking of cells on opposite sides of the pulvinus (Kim, et al. ) In nyctinastic plants, cells that take up water when a leaf rises and lose water when the leaf lowers are called extensor cells.
The opposite occurs in the flexor cells (Scatter and Gaston). When the extensor cells on one side of the pulvinus take up water and swell, the flexor cells on the other side release water and shrink. The opposite of this movement can also occur. However, the terms extensor and flexor are not rigidly defined. Rather, the regions are defined according to function, not position. Basically, the pulling cells that are on the adaxial (facing the light) side of the pulvinus are the flexor cells, and the cells on the abaxial side are the extensor cells.
Therefore, the terms can mean different cells in the same pulvinus at varying times of the day. By coordinating these swellings and shrinking's, the leaves are able to orient themselves perpendicular to the sunlight in dia heliotropic plants. Leaf movements are the result of changes in turgor pressure in the pulvinus. The pulvinus is a small group of cells at the base of the lamina of each leaflet. The reversible axial expansion and contraction of the extensor and flexor cells take place by reversible changes in the volume of their motor cells. These result from massive fluxes of osmotically active solutes across the cell membrane.
K+ is the ion that is usually implicated in this process, and is balanced by the co-transport of Cl- and other organic and inorganic anions. While the mechanisms of dia heliotropic leaf movements have not been studied extensively, much data exists detailing nyctinastic movements. Several ions are believed to be involved in leaf movement. These include K+, H+, Cl-, malate, and other small organic anions. K+ is the most abundant ion in pulling cells. Evidence suggests that electronic ion secretion is responsible for K+ uptake in nyctinastic plants.
The transition from light to darkness activates the H+/ATPase in the flexor cells of the pulvinus. This leads to the release of bound K+ from the apo plast and movement of the K+ into the cells by way of an ion channel. This increase in K+ in the cell decreases the osmotic potential of the cells, and water than influxes into the flexor cells, increasing their volume. In Samanea, K+ levels changed four-fold in flexor cells during the transition from light to darkness. In a similar experiment, during hour four of a photoperiod, the extensor apo plast of Samanea had 14 mM and the flexor apo plast had 23 mM of K+. After the lights were turned off, inducing nyctinastic movements, the K+ level in the apo plast rose to 72 mM in the extensor cells and declined to 10 mM in the flexor cells.
Therefore, it appears that swelling cells take up K+ from the apo plast and shrinking cells release K+ into the apo plast. In the pulvinus of Samanea saman, depolarization of the plasma membrane opens K+ channels (Kim et al). The driving force for the transport of K+ across the cell membranes is apparently derived from activity of an electronic proton pump. This creates an electrochemical gradient that allows for K+ movement. From concentration measurements in pulling, K+ seems to be the most important ion involved in the volume changes of these cells. How then, is K+ allowed to be at higher concentrations inside a cell than out of it?
Studies indicate that the K+ channels are not always open. In protoplasts of Samanea saman, K+ channels were closed when the membrane potential was below - 40 mV and open when the membrane potential was depolarized to above - 40 mV. A voltage-gated K+ channel that is opened upon depolarization has been observed in every patch clamp study of the plasma membranes of higher plants, including Samanea motor cells and Mimosa plainer cells. It is proposed that electronic H+ secretion results in a proton motive force, a gradient in pH and in membrane potential, that facilitates the uptake of K+, Cl-, sucrose, and other anions. External sodium acetate promotes closure and inhibits opening in Albizzia. This effect could be caused by a decrease in transmembrane pH gradients.
The promotion of opening and inhibition of closure of leaves by fusicoccin and auxin in Cassia, Mimosa, and Albizzia also implicate H+ in the solute uptake of motor cells, since both chemicals are H+/ATPase activators, stimulating H+ secretion from the plant cells into the apo plast. Vanadate, an H+/ATPase inhibitor, inhibits rhythmic leaflet closure in Albizzia. Although this conflicts with the movement effected by fusicoccin and auxin, it is believed that vanadate affects different cells, acting upon flexor rather than extensor cells. The model indicates that there are two possible types of H+ pumps. One is the electronic pump that creates the pmf mentioned above and opens the K+ channels. The other pump is a H+/K+ exchanger, in which K+ is pumped into the cell as H+ is pumped out of the cell in a type of antwort.
The presence of this typ of pump is only hypothetical, however, since at present there is no evidence to support it. Thus there are two possible ways for K+ to enter the pulling cells. The buildup of the pH gradient may also promote Cl- entry into the cell via a H+/Cl- co transporter as the H+ trickles back into the cell. Cl- ions may also be driven by the electrochemical gradient for Cl- via Cl- channels, as with K+.
A large Cl- channel was observed in the membrane of Samanea flexor protoplasts. The channel closed at membrane potentials above 50 mV and opened at potentials as low as - 100 mV. Light-driven changes in membrane potential may be involved in the activation of these proton pumps. This may be mediated by effects on cytoplasmic Ca 2 +. Ca 2 +-creators inhibit the nyctinastic folding as well as the photonastic unfolding responses in Cassia. Thus Ca 2 + may act as a second messenger in a calmodulin-dependent reaction.
The Ca 2 + may be what turns on the electronic proton pumps, causing changes in membrane potential. However, there is no direct evidence to support this hypothesis, although chemicals that are known to change calcium levels have been shown to alter the leaf movement of Cassia fasciculated and other nyctinastic plants. One study involving Samanea postulates that Ca 2 + channels are also present in the plasma membrane of pulling cells, and inositol triphosphate, a second messenger in the signal transduction pathway in animals, stimulates the opening of these channels. This insinuates that some light signal binds to a receptor on the outside of the cell and stimulates this transduction pathway.
However, whether this hypothesis is true is unclear. It has also been proposed that an outwardly directed Ca 2 + pump functions as a transport mechanism to restore homeostasis after Ca 2 + uptake through channels. The changes in Cl- levels in the apo plast are less then that for K+. The Cl- levels are 75 % that of K+ in Albizzia, 40 - 80 % in Samanea, and 40 % in Phaseolus. Therefore, other negatively charged ions must be used to compensate for the positive charges of the K+. Malate concentrations vary, and it is lower in shrunken cells than in swollen cells.
It is believed that malate is synthesized when there is not enough Cl- present to counteract the charges of the K+. An experiment with soybeans (Cronland) examined the role of K+ channels and H+/ATPase in the plasma membrane in para heliotropic movement. This was done by treating the pulling with the K+ channel blocker tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA), the H+/ATPase activator fusicoccin, and the H+/ATPase inhibitors vanadate and erythroid-B. In all cases the leaf movements of the plant were inhibited, leading to the hypothesis that the directional light results in an influx of K+ into the flexor cells from the apo plast and an efflux of K+ from the extensor cells into the apo plast, and these movements are driven by H+/ATPase pumps.
This combined reaction results in the elevation of the leaflet towards the light. In this study, the di heliotropic movements of C. pallida are examined. The purpose of this experiment is to determine which ions, if any, are used by pulling cells of Crotalaria pallida Action to control the uptake of water, thereby affecting di heliotropic movement. As mentioned before, most studies investigating the mechanisms of leaf movement have been performed on nyctinastic plants. These plants respond to light and dark changes, not direction or intensity of a light stimulus.
Therefore, it is of interest to learn whether the same principles can be applied to di heliotropic movement. Different inhibitors at varying concentrations will be injected individually into the pulvinus of C. pallida, and the sun tracking ability of the plant will then be measured. Tetraethylammonium (TEA), a K+ channel blocker will be added to test whether K+ is involved in sun tracking. Likewise, , a Cl- channel blocker will be added to determine if Cl- is used.
Vanadate, a H+/ATPase inhibitor, will determine if hydrogen ions are pumped across the plasma membrane, causing a hyper polarization of the membrane. Fusicoccin, a H+/ATPase activator will also be tested.
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