Plants require a
range of essential macro and micronutrients for their growth and development. For
terrestrial plants, all mineral nutrients derive from the soil. Although
research into the roles and functions of such minerals stretches back more than
150 years, there are still many unresolved questions, even where the definition
of “essential mineral” is concerned. The study of plant mineral nutrition has
both academic and applied aspects to it.
The simple fact that the human diet is, directly or indirectly, plant
based has obvious and profound implications in this respect. Today, research
into plant mineral nutrition is more pertinent than ever in the face of a
growing world population and the increasing need for sustainable agriculture.
The study of
plant mineral research touches on many biological disciplines such as
biophysical techniques to follow uptake and distribution of mineral ions,
analytical methods to measure minerals in soil and tissue, whole plant physiology
to assess growth and development in different conditions, and, more recently,
the whole gambit of molecular approaches to characterize the relevant genes and
proteins. Furthermore, it spans a large spatiotemporal range from subcellular
to whole plants and from msec to months. This volume contains a comprehensive
collection of methodologies that are routinely used in plant mineral nutrition
research. It describes easy-to-follow protocols that will allow the researcher
to study the most relevant aspects of plant mineral nutrition, including growth
parameters, ion contents and composition, soil analyses, flux measurements, and
the use of public facilities for high-throughput analyses. As such this volume
should be of great use to plant scientists at every level but particularly to
plant physiologists, crop scientists, and horticulturalists.
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