The F130S point mutation in the Arabidopsis high-affinity K+ transporter AtHAK5 increases K+ over Na+ and Cs+ selectivity and confers Na+ and Cs+ tolerance to yeast under heterologous expression

Potassium (K+) is an essential macronutrient required for plant growth, development and high yield production of crops. Members of group I of the KT/HAK/KUP family of transporters, such as HAK5, are key components for K+ acquisition by plant roots at low external K+ concentrations. Certain abiotic stress conditions such as salinity or Cs+-polluted soils may jeopardize plant K+ nutrition because HAK5-mediated K+ transport is inhibited by Na+ and Cs+. Here, by screening in yeast a randomly-mutated collection of AtHAK5 transporters, a new mutation in AtHAK5 sequence is identified that greatly increases Na+ tolerance. The single point mutation F130S, affecting an amino acid residue conserved in HAK5 transporters from several species, confers high salt tolerance, as well as Cs+ tolerance. This mutation increases more than 100-fold the affinity of AtHAK5 for K+ and reduces the Ki values for Na+ and Cs+, suggesting that the F130 residue may contribute to the structure of the pore region involved in K+ binding. In addition, this mutation increases the Vmax for K+. All this changes occur without increasing the amount of the AtHAK5 protein in yeast and support the idea that this residue is contributing to shape the selectivity filter of the AtHAK5 transporter

Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance

Transient micronutrient enrichment of the surface ocean can enhance phytoplankton growth rates and alter microbial community structure with an ensuing spectrum of biogeochemical feedbacks. Strong phytoplankton responses to micronutrients supplied by volcanic ash have been reported recently. Here we: (i) synthesize findings from these recent studies; (ii) report the results of a new remote sensing study of ash fertilization; and (iii) calculate theoretical bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export. Our synthesis highlights that phytoplankton responses to ash do not always simply mimic that of iron amendment; the exact mechanisms for this are likely biogeochemically important but are not yet well understood. Inherent optical properties of ash-loaded seawater suggest rhyolitic ash biases routine satellite chlorophyll-a estimation upwards by more than an order of magnitude for waters with 0.5 mg chlorophyll-a m-3. For this reason post-ash-deposition chlorophyll-a changes in oligotrophic waters detected via standard Case 1 (open ocean) algorithms should be interpreted with caution. Remote sensing analysis of historic events with a bias less than a factor of 2 provided limited stand-alone evidence for ash-fertilization. Confounding factors were poor coverage, incoherent ash dispersal, and ambiguity ascribing biomass changes to ash supply over other potential drivers. Using current estimates of iron release and carbon export efficiencies, uncertainty bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export for 3 events are presented. Patagonian iron supply to the Southern Ocean from volcanic eruptions is less than that of windblown dust on thousand year timescales but can dominate supply at shorter timescales. Reducing uncertainties in remote sensing of phytoplankton response and nutrient release from ash are avenues for enabling assessment of the oceanic response to large-scale transient nutrient enrichment