Hyperosmotic stress is known to significantly enhance net uptake of inorganic ions into plant cells. Direct evidence for cell turgor recovery via such a mechanism, however, is still lacking. In the present study, we performed concurrent measurements of net ion fluxes (with the noninvasive microelectrode ion flux estimation technique) and cell turgor changes (with the pressure-probe technique) to provide direct evidence that inorganic ion uptake regulates turgor in osmotically stressed Arabidopsis epidermal root cells. Immediately after onset of hyperosmotic stress (100/100 mM mannitol/sorbitol treatment), the cell turgor dropped from 0.65 to about 0.25 MPa. Turgor recovery started within 2 to 10 min after the treatment and was accompanied by a significant (30-80 nmol m-2 s-1) increase in uptake of K+, Cl-, and Na+ by root cells. In most cells, almost complete (>90% of initial values) recovery of the cell turgor was observed within 40 to 50 min after stress onset. In another set of experiments, we combined the voltage-clamp and the microelectrode ion flux estimation techniques to show that this process is, in part, mediated by voltage-gated K+ transporters at the cell plasma membrane. The possible physiological significance of these findings is discussed.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Plant biology
Research Field:	Plant physiology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences
UTAS Author:	Shabala, SN (Professor Sergey Shabala)
ID Code:	24610
Year Published:	2002
Web of Science® Times Cited:	162
Deposited By:	Agricultural Science
Deposited On:	2002-08-01
Last Modified:	2005-06-07
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