title: Considerations in measuring Potassium efflux from plant cells using 87Rb magnetic resonance.
abstract: In order to stay metabolically active, plant cells must transport Potassium ions across their plasmalemma. Ion transport is subject to many complex metabolic regulatory processes. Information on Potassium metabolism can be obtained with 87Rb NMR spectroscopy, using Rubidium as a congener for Potassium. However, due to the presence of the vacuole, another non-metabolic mechanism for ion flux regulation exists. Using simple biophysical arguments, it is shown that an increase in vacuole size, without a change in total cell volume, could initiate a change in Potassium efflux. This change in efflux can be significant, especially for large vacuoles.
authors.affiliation: National Research Council, Plant Biotechnology Institute, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. marco.gruwel@nrc.ca
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gruwel
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D017136:Ion Transport; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism*; D012414:Rubidium Radioisotopes; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000378:metabolism; D003313:Zea mays / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012414:Rubidium Radioisotopes; D011188:Potassium