'Tailoring the Plant to Fit the Soil' in Stead of 'Tailoring the Soil to Fit the Plant' is an Alternate Environmental Sound Strategy to Acclimate Orthophosphate (Pi) Deprivation via Highly Coordinated Classical Pi-Starvation Induced Mechanisms

Acclimation to orthophosphate (Pi) deprivation via highly coordinated Pi-starvation induced (PSI) classical mechanisms such as copious quantities of H(+) and carboxylates (OAs) exudation, remodeling and modification of root architecture by increasing structural and functional plasticity, enhanced uptake rate and increased synthesis of Pi transporters would reduce or eliminate our current overreliance on expensive, polluting, and nonrenewable Pi-fertilizers. These complicated but elegant morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular adjustments of Pi-starved plants provide an excellent example of how the unique flexibility of plant metabolism and energy transduction helps them to cope in a typically stressful environment. Pi-starved roots possess enhanced H(+)-ATPase and PEPCase which could result in increasing H(+) efflux and OAs exudations in the root vicinity. This would lead to the rhizosphere acidification, which thereby contribute to the solublization and assimilation of mineral Pi from environment. To visualize the dissolution of sparingly soluble Ca-phosphate and rhizospheric pH changes (in situ), genetically diverse Brassica cultivars were grown on agar media. Newly formed Ca-phosphate was suspended in agar containing other essential nutriens. With NH(4)(+) applied as the N source, the precipitate dissolved in the root vicinity and this was ascribed to acidification. No dissolution was occurred with No(3)(-)-nutrition. In order to observe the pH changes at the media-root interface (rhizosphere), an image analysis was carried out after embedding the roots in agar containing bromocresol purple as pH indicator. Efficient cultivar 'Brown Raya' showed greater decrease in pH than P-inefficient 'B.S.A' in the culture media. Hydroponically grown cultivars were compared with respect to P-utilization efficiency (PUE), P-stress factor (PSF), and Ca- and P-uptake at P-starvation. PUE, and Ca- and P-uptake correlated significantly (P<0.01) with biomass accumulation, indicating that higher P-uptake of efficient cultivars was because of their higher Ca-uptake, which in turn was related to their better P-acquisition and PUE. Remodelling of root architecture of efficient cultivars helped the cultivars to establish a better rooting system, which provided basis for tolerance under P-starvation.