Absorption and redistribution dynamics of P and K in eucalyptus species

• Grant number: 19/10614-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Mazzafera
• Grantee: Alexandre Augusto Borghi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/25498-0 - Phosphorus use efficiency in Eucalyptus and the physiological and genetic mechanisms involved, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project is part of the thematic project "Efficiency of phosphorus use in Eucalyptus and the physiological and genetic mechanisms involved - Process FAPESP: 2016 / 25498-0", which investigates the physiological mechanisms that control the responsiveness to the supply of P and the efficiency of absorption of this nutrient when little available in the soil. During the exception of the project, which is in its second year, it became clear that a greater detail of the dynamics of absorption and redistribution of P in the plants studied was needed. On the other hand, it was also considered very pertinent to complement the research by studying the K, which is a very important nutrient in the formation of eucalyptus wood, a subject that was also the reason for a project developed in our laboratory and which was interrupted. Thus, in this project we will try to understand better, in more detail, how the supply, in different times and doses (sufficiency and deficiency) of P and K, influences the redistribution of the same in the various parts of the plants, how they affect the distribution of other nutrients, if there are modifications in the release of exudates by the roots and leaf composition, if mycorrhization responds and is associated with other responses, how the growth is altered and if there are changes in wood quality (density and components of the cell wall) and parameters physiological (photosynthesis). The goal is to understand not only the effect of lack, but how plants adjust metabolically to maintain growth.