The Use of Labelled Nutrients

Rhizosphere and the Phyllosphere
Rhizosphere Introduction
Rhizospher Effect
Nitrogen Fixation in the Rhizosphere
Alteration of Rhizosphere Microflora
Associative and Antagonistic Activities in the Rhizosphere
Root Exudates
Organic Compounds Detected in Plant Root Exudates
Fungistasis
Techniques of Rhizosphere
The Soil Dilution and Plate Count Method
The Soil Plate
The Soil Box
The Contact Slide Technique
Artificial Rhizosphere
Model System

The Use of Labelled Nutrients

The Use of Labelled Nutrients

Radioactive carbon, phosphorus and sulphur have been used to find out the rate and extent of the transport of photosynthetic products from shoots to the root system and their ultimate liberation into the root medium as exudates.

Conversely, the role of root surface fungi in the mobilization of nutrients to the root system and subsequently to the tops of plants can also be studied. In such studies plants are grown under aseptic conditions and roots infected with specific root surface fungi.

The tops of plants are enclosed in polythene bags or special chambers containing radioactive carbon dioxide and root exudates or rhizosphere soil extracts assayed for radioactivity in relation to time. By growing plants for longer periods in chambers containing ¹⁴CO₂, it would be possible to detect qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature and amounts of amino acids, organic acids and sugars liberated into the surrounding medium, by means of paper chromatography followed by autoradiography.

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