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Interactive Effects of Salinity and Phosphorus Nutrition of the Concentrations of Phosphate and Phosphate Esters in Mature Photosynthesizing Corn Leaves ¹

^a United States Salinity Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Riverside, California 92502

The effects of salinity on corn plants (Zea mays L.) are influenced by the concentration of nutrient orthophosphate. Salinity (–2 bars each of NaCl and CaCl₂) was more injurious in combination with a high concentration of orthophosphate (2 mM) (that gave optimum yields in the absence of salinity) than it was with a lower concentration (0.1 mM). With 2 mM orthophosphate, salinity seemed to damage the plant mechanisms that normally regulate the internal concentration of orthophosphate resulting in excessive accumulation and P toxicity. On the other hand, with 0.1 mM orthophosphate, salinity decreased orthophosphate concentration in mature leaves. This effect was paralleled by decreases in the concentration of adenosine 5'-triphosphate and in the energy charge of the adenylate system, indicating an orthophosphate deficit. Even so, plants survived salinity better under these conditions than in the presence of 2 mM orthophosphate. The data indicated that salinity affected the phosphorylated state of the adenine nucleotides only indirectly through its effect on the concentration of orthophosphate in the cells.

Salinity, especially in the presence of 2 mM orthophosphate, resulted in an increase in the concentrations of sugar phosphates in mature photosynthesizing leaves, suggesting that translocation rather than photosynthesis was a limiting process. Decreased translocation could be a secondary effect of decreased growth. However, a decreased translocation rate could cause decreased growth by limiting the supply of essential metabolites reaching growing tissues.