Common reed produces starch granules at the shoot base in response to salt stress

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02188.x
• Publication Date: 2007-08-07T01:13:01Z
• Authors: Masatake Kanai; Kyoko Higuchi; Takashi Hagihara; Teruko Konishi; Tadashi Ishii; Naoko Fujita; Yasunori Nakamura; Yoshiyuki Maeda; Masaaki Yoshiba; Toshiaki Tadano
• Keywords: Phragmites

Common reed (Phragmites australis) is a well known salt-tolerant plant and it suggested that reeds recover Na(+) in the xylem sap of shoot base (basal part shoot), store temporarily base, release into phloem sap, then retranslocate to roots. To investigate whether retained reeds, confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) observations were conducted using an intracellular Na(+)-specific fluorescent probe. The CLSM revealed produced large number starch granules at when salt-stressed, fluorescence indicating location free was observed same position as granules. Na content considerably greater than whereas potassium (K) contents only slightly base. Reeds Na(+)-binding parenchyma cells salt-stressed; these may decrease Na(+). It proposed site-specific production constitutes novel salt tolerance mechanism.