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Great article about a macronutrient that is more important than some folks think.
Calcium is considered a plant macronutrient. In their book “Plant Physiology 4th edition,” Frank Salisbury and Cleon Ross define a macronutrient as any element with a concentration above 1,000 mg/kg or 0.1 percent in the plant tissue. Secondly, calcium is not mobile; it cannot be moved through the plant’s vascular tissues because it is locked away in structural compounds of the plant.
In the book “The Use of Nutrients in Crop Plants,” the authors reviewed a variety of studies that suggest plants exhibit a linear increase in total calcium concentration in their tissues as they grow, which suggests that calcium is a physiological requirement throughout the entirety of a plant’s life cycle.
With these assertions in mind, what is the function of calcium in plants and how much is required for a plant to be healthy and productive? Let’s take a dive into the inner workings of plant physiology.
Physiological Roles of Calcium
What follows is by no means an exhaustive review because a large body of research is currently being undertaken to better understand the complex and numerous chemical and electrical relationships among calcium and other cellular components.
Calcium and the Cell Wall
Calcium is an important constituent of pectin—the outer-most layer of the cell wall. Also called the middle lamella, this layer of complex polysaccharides (carbohydrate molecules) cements adjacent cells together and is responsible for the rigidity of plant tissues. The biochemistry involved in the synthesis of pectin is rather complex, but it occurs in the late phases of mitosis (cell division) when the cell plate is being formed between the two daughter cells.
Recall that calcium is considered an immobile nutrient. The reason for that is due to the element being “locked-up” in molecules that are structural in nature. This means those molecules cannot be degraded to release calcium for other purposes during a plant’s growth cycle. For this reason, most deficiency symptoms occur in the newly formed tissues of the plant.
The bottom line: Calcium is a constituent of the cell wall (i.e., pectin layer), which is constructed during cell division and is responsible for plant rigidity. Because calcium is part of the cell wall, it is not possible for it to be remobilized for use in other parts of the plant.
Calcium and Cell Division
Numerous authors cite calcium’s importance in the migration of chromosomes during the anaphase portion of mitosis. Anaphase is the period of cell division where the chromosomes are aligned with the cell’s central axis. This phenomenon occurs with the assistance of the mitotic spindle, which is a series of proteins that segregate the chromosomes for allocation to daughter cells. The formation of the mitotic spindle is thought to be controlled by the relative concentration of calcium in the cytoplasm.
In his review paper entitled “Calcium: A Central Regulator of Plant Growth and Development,” Peter K. Hepler cites other authors’ studies that suggest calcium concentration in the cytosol (internal cell fluids) is tightly controlled; the plant cell will actively pump calcium from the cytosol to storage areas (e.g., endoplasmic reticulum or network of membranous tubules in the cell’s cytoplasm), which leads to the formation of the mitotic spindle.
With that in mind, it might be counterintuitive to think of low calcium as a detriment to cell division; however, one must consider that cell processes are tightly controlled. Considering the ideas of homeostasis and calcium deficiency, the resulting logical outcome is that a cell that is unable to modulate (balance) cytosolic calcium concentrations would also be incapable of controlling the development of the mitotic spindle. This would result in uncontrolled cell division in concert with poor cell wall development (i.e., lack of calcium to build pectin), leading to weakly formed and (potentially) genetically compromised young tissues.
The bottom line: Calcium plays a significant role in the organization of genetic material during the process of cell division. An appropriate concentration of calcium in the cytosol triggers the chromosomes to be allocated between the two new cells that form during the cell-division process.
Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions (CPS); Ph.D. in botany/plant ecology (Rutgers University)
http://magazine.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/october-2017/got-calcium.aspx
Calcium is considered a plant macronutrient. In their book “Plant Physiology 4th edition,” Frank Salisbury and Cleon Ross define a macronutrient as any element with a concentration above 1,000 mg/kg or 0.1 percent in the plant tissue. Secondly, calcium is not mobile; it cannot be moved through the plant’s vascular tissues because it is locked away in structural compounds of the plant.
In the book “The Use of Nutrients in Crop Plants,” the authors reviewed a variety of studies that suggest plants exhibit a linear increase in total calcium concentration in their tissues as they grow, which suggests that calcium is a physiological requirement throughout the entirety of a plant’s life cycle.
With these assertions in mind, what is the function of calcium in plants and how much is required for a plant to be healthy and productive? Let’s take a dive into the inner workings of plant physiology.
Physiological Roles of Calcium
What follows is by no means an exhaustive review because a large body of research is currently being undertaken to better understand the complex and numerous chemical and electrical relationships among calcium and other cellular components.
Calcium and the Cell Wall
Calcium is an important constituent of pectin—the outer-most layer of the cell wall. Also called the middle lamella, this layer of complex polysaccharides (carbohydrate molecules) cements adjacent cells together and is responsible for the rigidity of plant tissues. The biochemistry involved in the synthesis of pectin is rather complex, but it occurs in the late phases of mitosis (cell division) when the cell plate is being formed between the two daughter cells.
Recall that calcium is considered an immobile nutrient. The reason for that is due to the element being “locked-up” in molecules that are structural in nature. This means those molecules cannot be degraded to release calcium for other purposes during a plant’s growth cycle. For this reason, most deficiency symptoms occur in the newly formed tissues of the plant.
The bottom line: Calcium is a constituent of the cell wall (i.e., pectin layer), which is constructed during cell division and is responsible for plant rigidity. Because calcium is part of the cell wall, it is not possible for it to be remobilized for use in other parts of the plant.
Calcium and Cell Division
Numerous authors cite calcium’s importance in the migration of chromosomes during the anaphase portion of mitosis. Anaphase is the period of cell division where the chromosomes are aligned with the cell’s central axis. This phenomenon occurs with the assistance of the mitotic spindle, which is a series of proteins that segregate the chromosomes for allocation to daughter cells. The formation of the mitotic spindle is thought to be controlled by the relative concentration of calcium in the cytoplasm.
In his review paper entitled “Calcium: A Central Regulator of Plant Growth and Development,” Peter K. Hepler cites other authors’ studies that suggest calcium concentration in the cytosol (internal cell fluids) is tightly controlled; the plant cell will actively pump calcium from the cytosol to storage areas (e.g., endoplasmic reticulum or network of membranous tubules in the cell’s cytoplasm), which leads to the formation of the mitotic spindle.
With that in mind, it might be counterintuitive to think of low calcium as a detriment to cell division; however, one must consider that cell processes are tightly controlled. Considering the ideas of homeostasis and calcium deficiency, the resulting logical outcome is that a cell that is unable to modulate (balance) cytosolic calcium concentrations would also be incapable of controlling the development of the mitotic spindle. This would result in uncontrolled cell division in concert with poor cell wall development (i.e., lack of calcium to build pectin), leading to weakly formed and (potentially) genetically compromised young tissues.
The bottom line: Calcium plays a significant role in the organization of genetic material during the process of cell division. An appropriate concentration of calcium in the cytosol triggers the chromosomes to be allocated between the two new cells that form during the cell-division process.
Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions (CPS); Ph.D. in botany/plant ecology (Rutgers University)
http://magazine.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/october-2017/got-calcium.aspx