How plants absorb the perfect quantity of minerals
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
In order to survive, plants should take up neither too many nor too few minerals from the soil. New insights into how they operate this critical balance have now been published by biologists at the Ruhr-Universität in a series of three papers in the journal The Plant Cell. The researchers discovered novel functions of the metal-binding molecule nicotianamine. "The results are important for sustainable agriculture and also for people to prevent health problems caused by deficiencies of vital nutrients in our diet" says Prof. Dr. Ute Krämer of the RUB Department of Plant Physiology.