title: The Ionomic Study of Vegetable Crops.
abstract: Soil contains various essential and nonessential elements, all of which can be absorbed by plants. Plant ionomics is the study of the accumulation of these elements (the ionome) in plants. The ionomic profile of a plant is affected by various factors, including species, variety, organ, and environment. In this study, we cultivated various vegetable crop species and cultivars under the same field conditions and analyzed the level of accumulation of each element in the edible and nonedible parts using ionomic techniques. The concentration of each element in the edible parts differed between species, which could be partly explained by differences in the types of edible organs (root, leaf, seed, and fruit). For example, the calcium concentration was lower in seeds and fruit than in other organs because of the higher dependency of calcium accumulation on xylem transfer. The concentration of several essential microelements and nonessential elements in the edible parts also varied greatly between cultivars of the same species, knowledge of which will help in the breeding of vegetables that are biofortified or contain lower concentrations of toxic elements. Comparison of the ionomes of the fruit and leaves of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and eggplant (S. melongena) indicated that cadmium and boron had higher levels of accumulation in eggplant fruit, likely because of their effective transport in the phloem. We also found that homologous elements that have been reported to share the same uptake/transport system often showed significant correlation only in a few families and that the slopes of these relationships differed between families. Therefore, these differences in the characteristics of mineral accumulation are likely to affect the ionomic profiles of different families.
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maejima
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urayama
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Aiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamauchi
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Owadano
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kitaku, Sapporo, 0608589, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osaki
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 9818555, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanayama
authors.affiliation: Agricultural Radiation Research Center, NARO Tohoku Agricultural Research Center, 50 Aza Harajyukuminami, Arai, Fukushima, 9602156, Japan.
authors.forename: Takuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinano
mesh_terms: D001895:Boron / Q000032:analysis; D002104:Cadmium / Q000032:analysis; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D059022:Food Safety; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D032323:Solanum melongena / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants; D002104:Cadmium; D001895:Boron