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Chemical Strategies for Iron Acquisition in Plants
Author(s) -
Staiger Dorothee
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3773(20020703)41:13<2259::aid-anie2259>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - earth (classical element) , chemistry , mechanism (biology) , biochemical engineering , astrobiology , biology , engineering , physics , mathematical physics , quantum mechanics
Iron is an essential element for plant nutrition. Although iron is the fourth most abundant element (3 %) of the earth's crust, it is not readily available because of its low solubility. Therefore, plants need an active mechanism to extract iron from the soil. They have evolved several chemical strategies to acquire iron ions and the physiology of these mechanisms has been known for a long time. Only recently, the use of molecular genetic approaches has led to a biochemical and molecular characterization of the players involved, thus providing an entry to the manipulation of iron uptake in plants.