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Nutrient imbalances in tomato plants and acid phosphatase activity in the leaves
Author(s) -
Besford Robert T.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740300311
Subject(s) - acid phosphatase , phosphatase , nutrient , alkaline phosphatase , chemistry , specific activity , toxicity , enzyme , biochemistry , food science , biology , botany , horticulture , organic chemistry
Tomato plants were grown in sand for 5 weeks and received one of fifteen different nutrient solutions in which the concentrations of various elements were either reduced or increased individually, relative to their concentration in a complete nutrient solution, and the acid phosphatase activity in extracts from the young, fully‐expanded leaves was determined. When expressed on a fresh weight basis, only in the P‐deficient plants was the activity significantly increased with a degree of confidence better than P =0.05; a slight increase occurred in extracts from the plants suffering from B toxicity, but this was only significant at P =0.1. There were no increases in acid phosphatase activity with deficiencies of N, K, Ca, Mg, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo or Zn; or with toxicities of Cu, Mn or Zn. When expressed on a protein N basis, only N and P deficiencies increased the acid phosphatase activity. It is proposed that the acid phosphatase activity of the leaves could be used as an indicator of P deficiency in the tomato.