It performs a number of functions that ensure healthy, stress-tolerant plants. Vital in regulating water, K helps to create concentration gradients inside the plant and, in turn, supports water uptake into the plant, which is essential in times when water is not readily available Marschner, Potassium activates over 80 enzymes that regulate plant growth reactions, which helps prevent disease and control insects.

Additionally, adequate K increases winter hardiness in crops such as alfalfa. Potassium is second to N in terms of quantity that both corn and soybean plants need.

Peak uptake rates for both K and N occur between V8-VT in corn and V6-R5 in soybean. Field studies have documented the role of K in N use efficiency.

In Wisconsin, Jones et al. When soil-test P and K were deficient, corn yield did not increase with increasing N rates Figure 3.

These results highlight the synergy between K and N nutrition and that optimum soil-K levels are required to optimize N use efficiency. While N applications in soybean have been on the rise, they are not routine as soybeans obtain the majority of N through biological nitrogen fixation.

Rhizobium bacteria form a symbiotic relationship with soybeans, and in exchange for carbohydrates carbon , convert atmospheric N gas N2 into a plant-available form of N. Adequate soil-K levels influence N use efficiency in soybean by activating the nitrogenase enzyme, which is essential for N2 fixation, and by aiding in carbohydrate transport to the roots Imas and Magen, Soybeans grown with adequate K may have better nodule formation, leading to higher N fixation and N use efficiency.

As government regulations are imposed and Ecosystem markets expand, the need to improve N use efficiency will become critical.

Balancing N and K is one of the most cost-effective ways to meet this need because adequate K and N availability improves N uptake and the conversion of N into plant dry matter.

Increasing N uptake and fertilizer recovery with adequate K nutrition may reduce the potential for N losses to the environment e. Yield trends continue to increase for major field crops, resulting in greater K removal and declining soil nutrient levels in areas such as the Midwest, Eastern Corn Belt, and Southeast U.

Figure 4. These data indicate K is a yield-limiting factor in a large portion of soils across North America. It reduces the time it takes stool to move through your large intestine. This limits your exposure to carcinogens and may reduce your risk of colon cancer.

In some cases, impaired nutrient absorption can occur due to underlying medical causes. The inability to absorb nutrients from food refers to malabsorption.

Chronic problems with nutrient absorption can negatively impact your health. You should see your doctor if you experience any of the above symptoms.

Your doctor will evaluate you and recommend testing based on your medical history and symptoms. This is because malabsorption can have many different causes. The results of the testing will guide your treatment options.

Nutrient absorption is integral to digestion and a requirement for overall health and wellness. Your intestines must be able to absorb nutrients from the foods you eat to obtain benefits from a balanced, plant-based diet.

There are many ways to maximize nutrient absorption. Try eating healthy fats with vegetables, pairing prebiotics with probiotics, and opting for unpeeled foods. Chewing your food thoroughly and drinking plenty of water also improves digestion and nutrient absorption.

Your digestive system must complete several physiological mechanisms to successfully uptake nutrients. A healthy digestive system absorbs nutrients, supplies your cells with energy, and releases waste. Many medical conditions can disrupt digestion and cause malabsorption.

This can lead to a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms. How to Boost Your Nutrient Absorption. Home » Blog » How to Boost Your Nutrient Absorption.

View Larger Image. Digestion and Absorption of Nutrients Your digestive system prepares the food you eat for nutrient absorption before it reaches your intestines. Tips to Maximize Nutrient Absorption Boosting nutrient absorption can improve your health. Add Healthy Fats to Vegetables Consuming healthy fats with vegetables can enhance the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Chew Thoroughly Chewing thoroughly breaks down food into small pieces, which makes it easier to swallow.

Keep the Peel The outer skin of many fruits and vegetables contains most of their nutrients. Here are some fruit and vegetable peels that are safe to eat: Potatoes Apples Pears Peaches Kiwi Carrots Cucumbers Zucchini Oranges Lemons Stay Hydrated Staying hydrated helps your digestive system run smoothly.

Diagnosis for Malabsorption In some cases, impaired nutrient absorption can occur due to underlying medical causes. Symptoms of malabsorption can include: Bloating Weight loss Fatigue Muscle weakness Abdominal pain Foul-smelling stools Rashes Swelling in hands and feet Nausea GI bleeding Anemia You should see your doctor if you experience any of the above symptoms.

The following tests can diagnose malabsorption: Stool test Hydrogen breath test Endoscopy Blood tests Small intestine biopsy Abdominal x-ray. Wrapping Up Nutrient Absorption Nutrient absorption is integral to digestion and a requirement for overall health and wellness.

Environmental and lifestyle factors can also impact digestive enzyme production. Excessive alcohol intake, smoking, and chronic stress can all decrease the production of digestive enzymes. Depending on your individual needs, digestive enzymes are available in various forms.

Individual specific enzymes like lactase can be taken to target a specific deficiency, or multi-enzyme supplementation containing a variety of enzymes such as amylase, lipase, and protease enzymes can work synergistically.

These can be derived from animal sources or come from plants like bromelain from pineapple. Microbe-derived enzymes synthesized from yeasts or fungi are another alternative and generally require lower dosing. Herbs with bitter flavor are also used to support and improve digestion and nutrient absorption.

Digestive bitters like ginger, wormwood, gentian, burdock root, dandelion root, and artichoke leaf are taken in your mouth before eating to stimulate the bitter taste buds. This signals your digestive system to start the process of digestion by producing more saliva, gastric juices, and enzymes to optimize digestion and absorption of your food.

Studies show that stress has many impacts on digestion and nutrient absorption, is related to functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome IBS , and creates imbalances in the gut microbiome. The activation of the sympathetic nervous system during stress contributes to changes in motility or movement in the gastrointestinal tract.

If motility slows, you can have an increased risk of dysbiosis like SIBO. On the other hand, stress can also contribute to increased motility, which impairs nutrient absorption.

Stress also increases inflammatory cytokines that damage the intestinal lining and cause impaired nutrient absorption. Studies also show stress -induced changes in the microbiome that lead to dysbiosis and significantly affect the microbiome's functioning.

You can adapt your lifestyle for better nutrient absorption in several powerful ways. Mindful eating involves your food and mind-body present moment state with a non-judgmental awareness. This approach has been shown to counter digestive disturbances attributed to stress.

Getting adequate restorative sleep is also crucial for digestion and the health of your microbiome. To get at least hours each night, establish a regular sleep routine to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day and set up your sleep environment to be dark, quiet, and cool.

Exercising regularly but not too intensely is also beneficial for digestion and the microbiome. Incorporating mind-body practices like yoga and tai chi can be especially beneficial for calming the mind and nervous system while getting in movement.

You need the proper balance of nutrients to maintain optimal health and functioning. Your digestive tract allows you to digest and absorb nutrients you consume in food and supplements when it works properly.

The small intestine is the primary source of nutrient absorption and depends on help from the mouth, stomach, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas to adequately digest and absorb nutrients. Health issues that impact these organs, the intestinal surface, the balance of microbes in your gut microbiome , inflammation levels, and more can influence how well you absorb various nutrients.

Functional medicine offers a comprehensive multimodal approach to understanding and addressing the underlying factors contributing to poor absorption of nutrients. This allows for a personalized approach incorporating diet, lifestyle, supplementation, and stress management to optimize nutrient absorption and restore balance.

Barone, M. Gut microbiome—micronutrient interaction: The key to controlling the bioavailability of minerals and vitamins? BioFactors , 48 2 , — Basile, E. Physiology, Nutrient Absorption. gov; StatPearls Publishing. Bek, S. Association between irritable bowel syndrome and micronutrients: A systematic review.

Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology , 37 8 , — Blake, K. Anti Inflammatory Diet What to Eat and Avoid Plus Specialty Labs To Monitor Results. Rupa Health. Cherpak, C. Mindful eating: a review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function.

Cloyd, J. Top Lab Test to Run on Your Iron Deficiency Anemia Patients. A Functional Medicine Protocol for Leaky Gut Syndrome. How To Test for Lactose Intolerance. Bile Acids Testing, Interpreting, Treatment. How to Heal Your Gut Naturally With Functional Nutrition. What are Digestive Enzymes: How to Test Your Patients Levels.

A Functional Medicine Celiac Disease Protocol: Specialty Testing, Nutrition, and Supplements. The Importance of Comprehensive Stool Testing in Functional Medicine. Macro and Micronutrients Uncovered: Understanding Their Role, Deficiencies, and Clinical Relevance. Cloyd, K. Gut Microbiome Diversity: The Cornerstone of Immune Resilience.

Conner, V. Greenan, S. Constant Burping Is A Sign Of This Harmful Bacterial Overgrowth. Guo, Y. Irritable Bowel Syndrome Is Positively Related to Metabolic Syndrome: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

PLoS ONE , 9 11 , e Hadadi, N. Intestinal microbiota as a route for micronutrient bioavailability. Current Opinion in Endocrine and Metabolic Research , 20 , Kielbiski, E. What Are Digestive Enzymes and How Do They Work? Kresge, K. IBS vs IBD: Know The Symptoms. Weight Loss, Diarrhea, And Gas Are Signs Of This Dangerous Condition.

How Does Low Stomach Acid Affect Your Body? LoBisco, S. How Food Affects Your Mood Through The Gut-Brain Axis. How To Build A Healthy Microbiome From Birth.

Maholy, N. How to reduce stress through mind-body therapies. The Role of Probiotics and Prebiotics in Gut Health: An Integrative Perspective.

Mailing, L. Exercise and the Gut Microbiome. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews , 47 2 , 75— Malani, S. Inflammatory Markers How To Interpret.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Patricia, J. Physiology, Digestion. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. Preston, J. Functional Medicine Treatment for Malabsorption Syndrome. Sweetnich, J. How Stress Affects Our Gut Health. Unlocking the Benefits of Vitamin B The Importance of Maintaining Optimal Levels.

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Understanding the basics of nutrient absorption requires recognizing some anatomy of your digestive tract and how your body processes the food you consume. Your gastrointestinal tract is a highly specialized organ that stretches about 9 meters 30 feet from your mouth to the anus.

This important system helps you break down and absorb nutrients from the food you eat, excrete wastes and toxins out of your body, maintain crucial aspects of metabolism, hormone balance, and immunity, and influence your brain, skin, and other parts of your body.

Nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals are broken down via chewing, enzymes, and muscular movements of your stomach into smaller substrates in order to be absorbed across the intestinal tract into your bloodstream. The digestion process occurs along the digestive tract from the mouth into the small intestine to break down food and other consumed substances into small absorbable units.

These products of digestion can then cross the mucosa of the small intestine and enter the lymph or the blood in absorption. When you eat food, the digestive process begins with chewing and mixing that food with saliva in your mouth.

Salivary amylase helps enzymatically break down carbohydrates at this stage so nutrients can later be adequately absorbed. Next, the food passes through your esophagus and into your stomach. Here, it mixes with stomach acid hydrochloric acid and enzymes that further break down your food and help to kill any harmful pathogens.

You need adequate amounts of stomach acid to digest and absorb proteins, vitamin B12 , and minerals like iron and calcium. This mixture chyme from the stomach passes into the small intestine. Your small intestine is the primary site for the absorption of carbohydrates, proteins, fats , vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients.

To carry out this vital job, mucosal cells in your small intestine called enterocytes are covered with small finger-like projections microvilli that increase the intestinal cells' surface area for absorption.

In the first portion of the small intestine or duodenum , the chyme mixes with digestive juices, enzymes, and bile from the pancreas , liver , and gallbladder to prepare it for further absorption. In this section of the intestines, most of the iron, calcium , phosphorus, magnesium, copper, selenium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, folate, and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are absorbed.

In the next section of the small intestine jejunum , broken-down fats are absorbed into the lymphatic system, and amino acids from digested proteins are absorbed into the bloodstream.

Additionally, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenate, biotin, folate, pyridoxine, ascorbic acid, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium iron , zinc, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, lipids, monosaccharides, small peptides, and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are absorbed in this area.

Finally, the remaining nutrients pass into the most distal segment of the small intestine ileum. Bile salts and acids, ascorbic acid, folate, cobalamin, vitamin D, vitamin K, and magnesium are absorbed here.

The remaining fibers and wastes pass into the large intestine, where water is absorbed, and feces are prepared for elimination. A healthy and balanced digestive tract is required to properly absorb nutrients at these various locations along your small intestine.

If your body cannot properly absorb the nutrients that you eat, malabsorption can occur and result in various types of malnutrition. Several common digestive disorders can impair nutrient absorption, such as low stomach acid, gallbladder issues, Crohn's disease , celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome IBS.

You need adequate stomach acid to break down your food for absorption in the small intestines and proper absorption of minerals like calcium , magnesium, and iron, and vitamin B Later on in the digestive process, you need bile to emulsify fats for absorption.

Severe inflammation of the gallbladder or gallstones can prevent or reduce the release of bile, leading to inefficient absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Celiac disease occurs when the immune system mounts an autoimmune attack in response to exposure to gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, barley, rye, and spelt.

This chronic inflammatory process damages the small intestinal villi that are crucial to nutrient absorption. In addition to diarrhea and other intestinal symptoms, the resulting nutrient malabsorption seen in celiac disease can cause fatigue, failure to thrive in children , weight loss in adults , recurrent canker sores, reduced bone density, and iron deficiency anemia.

This form of inflammatory bowel disease IBD causes deficiencies in iron, vitamin B12 , folate, vitamin D, magnesium, and other nutrients since the damaged intestines cannot effectively absorb nutrients.

Irritable bowel syndrome IBS is a functional gastrointestinal disorder given when other causes of gastrointestinal discomfort and gastrointestinal dysfunction are excluded. Research suggests that IBS involves the interplay of genetics, lifestyle, stress, nervous system dysfunction, inflammation , and imbalances in the gut microbiome.

IBS disrupts the absorption of various nutrients, with people with IBS having lower levels of vitamin B2, vitamin D, calcium, and iron. Functional medicine looks for underlying contributing factors that play a role in poor absorption, including assessing digestive health through lab tests.

Evaluate the health of the gut and uncovering any conditions impacting the gastrointestinal tract and digestive process can help pinpoint specific issues affecting nutrient absorption to guide personalized treatment plans.

Lab testing in functional medicine for digestion includes stool analysis, micronutrient testing, and food sensitivity tests. For example, a comprehensive stool test like the GI-Effects by Genova Diagnostics provides a deep look at gut health and function by analyzing a stool sample.

This test provides an extensive analysis of the byproducts of digestion to help pinpoint any maldigestion and malabsorption. It also looks at markers of intestinal inflammation and microbial balance to uncover underlying issues that can contribute to malabsorption, such as dysbiosis, infections, and immune dysregulation.

The Micronutrient Test by SpectraCell Laboratories assesses the levels of various nutrients in the body to diagnose deficiencies and help target areas of possible issues with absorption. For example, low zinc levels can contribute to poor production of stomach acid, resulting in poor absorption of proteins, vitamin B12 , iron , and calcium.

Food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances can contribute to inflammation and damage to the absorptive surface of the small intestine. Functional medicine testing can uncover food allergies, sensitivities, and other issues with malabsorption.

The item Food Sensitivity test from Alletess Medical Laboratory evaluates IgG immune-mediated food sensitivities that can cause delayed reactions and digestive problems. Diagnostic Solutions can also test IgE-mediated Food Allergies with the IgE Allergy Explorer. Issues with malabsorption of various sugars can be tested with breath tests from Commonwealth Diagnostics looking at malabsorption of fructose , lactose , or sucrose malabsorption.

Blood tests are also available to help diagnose wheat and gluten-related disorders that may contribute to absorption issues. These laboratory tests are one part of a holistic approach to digestion optimization. Functional medicine identifies common root causes of digestive imbalances such as diet, lifestyle, stress, dysbiosis, and exposure to environmental toxins.

These factors can then be addressed as part of an individualized plan to bring the body back into balance and optimize nutrient absorption. Rather than solely focusing on symptoms, functional medicine for digestive health assesses your symptoms along with your medical and family history, lifestyle, environment, and testing to determine what nutrients are deficient and why you are having difficulty absorbing these nutrients.

Based on the assessed information, functional medicine practitioners develop a tailored treatment plan that aims to address the specific underlying causes of poor nutrient absorption in an individual patient.

Functional medicine management strategies for impaired digestive health and nutrient absorption issues commonly incorporate nutritional strategies, supplementation, and lifestyle modifications to support optimal digestion and absorption.

To optimize nutrient absorption, assessing and ensuring that each step of the digestive process is functioning adequately is essential. Nutritional strategies for digestion are a critical part of enhancing absorption and restoring nutrient levels in the body. For example, chewing thoroughly to liquid consistency before swallowing prepares your food for proper digestion and absorption.

Similarly, taking bitters or apple cider vinegar can support stomach acid levels. A diet for better nutrient absorption should be individualized based on identifying specific nutrient deficiencies, gut health issues, and other health needs.

It is also generally helpful for improving absorption and reducing inflammation for most people to eliminate gluten. This is crucial to improve intestinal permeability, inflammation, autoimmunity, and balance in the microbiome to optimize nutrient absorption.

A plant -focused diet based around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices provides plenty of fiber, polyphenols , and a variety of nutrients. Adding in fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and live-culture yogurt provides live probiotic cultures that support a diverse intestinal microbiome, providing anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-allergenic properties that can improve digestion, lactose intolerance, and nutrient absorption.

Supporting bile flow from the liver and gallbladder can also help optimize nutrient absorption. Foods like artichokes and bitter greens like dandelion, arugula, and endives help to stimulate bile flow.

For example, phytic and oxalic acids in plant foods can inhibit calcium absorption, but boiling green, leafy vegetables helps reduce oxalate content.

To optimize the absorption of nonheme iron , consume foods rich in plant-based iron like whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and green leafy vegetables with vitamin C.

A key consideration of gut health for optimal digestion revolves around the interplay of gut microbiota and nutrient absorption. Your gut is home to trillions of microorganisms that make up your microbiome.

A balanced microbiome plays many key roles in your health, including optimizing the production and absorption of nutrients. The balance of microbes at each section of your digestive tract significantly impacts your nutrient status by playing essential roles in the biosynthesis and bioavailability of several micronutrients.

There is a bidirectional micronutrient—microbiome axis. The nutrients you consume help to shape the balance of microbes in your gut since they destroy many of these nutrients for growth and survival.

In the other direction, your gut microbiota produces significant quantities of a wide range of nutrients. Your microbiome is especially important for the production of vitamin K and B group vitamins.

The microbes in your gut also enhance the absorption of minerals such as iron and calcium. You need the right microbes in your microbiome to assist with the digestion of complex carbohydrates and fibers that you cannot digest on your own.

This helps absorb essential nutrients and produces short-chain fatty acids SCFAs that help maintain a healthy gut, metabolism, and balanced inflammation. You can support a diverse microbiome by eating an anti-inflammatory diet rich in fiber, fermented foods, and prebiotics like asparagus, garlic, and dandelion greens while limiting processed foods, additives, and refined sugars.

In some cases, probiotic supplementation can be added if needed based on stool testing. In some cases, supplements for digestion, like digestive enzymes or bitters, may be necessary to support nutrient absorption and healing. As discussed above, your body needs enzymes from your gastrointestinal tract and its accessory organs to fully break down and absorb nutrients.

Certain health conditions result in insufficiency of some of these digestive enzymes. In these cases, taking exogenous replacement enzymes may be necessary to help your GI tract break down and absorb nutrients. For example, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency EPI can develop due to cystic fibrosis, autoimmune diseases like Sjogren's syndrome , and pancreatitis , causing the pancreas to produce too few digestive enzymes.

In other cases, a person may have insufficient enzymes needed to digest specific sugars. This can be genetic in conditions like congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency or acquired in lactose intolerance caused by acute gastrointestinal infections, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth SIBO , celiac disease, and Crohn's disease.

Environmental and lifestyle factors can also impact digestive enzyme production. As shown in Figure 1, the most common changes are inhibition of primary root growth often associated with P deficiency , increase in lateral root growth and density often associated with N, P, Fe, and S deficiency and increase in root hair growth and density often associated with P and Fe deficiency.

Figure 1: Overview of root architecture changes in response to nutrient deficiency. Plant roots exhibit a variety of changes in response to nutrient deficiency, including inhibition of primary root elongation and increased growth and density of lateral roots and root hairs.

These responses are species-, genotype-, and nutrient-specific, but they are generalized in this figure to demonstrate all potential effects. While nutrient deficiencies can pose serious threats to plant productivity, nutrients can become toxic in excess, which is also problematic.

When some micronutrients accumulate to very high levels in plants, they contribute to the generation of reactive oxygen species ROS , which can cause extensive cellular damage.

Some highly toxic elements like lead and cadmium cannot be distinguished from essential nutrients by the nutrient uptake systems in the plant root, which means that in contaminated soils, toxic elements may enter the food web via these nutrient uptake systems, causing reduced uptake of the essential nutrient and significantly reduced plant growth and quality.

In order to maintain nutrient homeostasis, plants must regulate nutrient uptake and must respond to changes in the soil as well as within the plant.

Thus, plant species utilize various strategies for mobilization and uptake of nutrients as well as chelation, transport between the various cells and organs of the plant and storage to achieve whole-plant nutrient homeostasis.

Here, we briefly describe a few examples of strategies used by plants to acquire nutrients from the soil. Potassium K is considered a macronutrient for plants and is the most abundant cation within plant cells. Potassium deficiency occurs frequently in plants grown on sandy soils resulting in a number of symptoms including browning of leaves, curling of leaf tips and yellowing chlorosis of leaves, as well as reduced growth and fertility.

Potassium uptake processes have been the subject of intense study for several decades. Early studies indicated that plants utilize both high and low affinity transport systems to directly acquire potassium from the soil.

Low affinity transport systems generally function when potassium levels in the soil are adequate for plant growth and development. The expression of these low affinity transporters does not appear to be significantly affected by potassium availability.

There are likely many proteins involved in high affinity potassium transport, but in Arabidopsis, two proteins have been identified as the most important transporters in this process. More recent work shows that plants contain a number of different transport systems to acquire potassium from the soil and distribute it within the plants.

Although much remains to be learned about potassium uptake and translocation in plants, it is clear that the mechanisms involved are complex and tightly controlled to allow the plant to acquire sufficient amounts of potassium from the soil under varying conditions. Iron is essential for plant growth and development and is required as a cofactor for proteins that are involved in a number of important metabolic processes including photosynthesis and respiration.

Iron-deficient plants often display interveinal chlorosis, in which the veins of the leaf remain green while the areas between the veins are yellow Figure 2. Due to the limited solubility of iron in many soils, plants often must first mobilize iron in the rhizosphere a region of the soil that surrounds, and is influenced by, the roots before transporting it into the plant.

Figure 2: Iron-deficiency chlorosis in soybean. The plant on the left is iron-deficient while the plant on the right is iron-sufficient. All rights reserved. Strategy I is used by all plants except the grasses Figure 3A.

It is characterized by three major enzymatic activities that are induced in response to iron limitation and that are located at the plasma membrane of cells in the outer layer of the root. Second, strategy I plants induce the activity of a plasma-membrane-bound ferric chelate reductase.

Finally, plants induce the activity of a ferrous iron transporter that moves ferrous iron across the plasma membrane and into the plant. In contrast, the grasses utilize strategy II to acquire iron under conditions of iron limitation Figure 3B. Following the imposition of iron limitation, strategy II species begin to synthesize special molecules called phytosiderophores PSs that display high affinity for ferric iron.

PSs are secreted into the rhizosphere where they bind tightly to ferric iron. Finally, the PS-ferric iron complexes are transported into root cells by PS-Fe III transporters. Interestingly, while both strategies are relatively effective at allowing plants to acquire iron from the soil, the strategy II response is thought to be more efficient because grass species tend to grow better in calcareous soils which have a high pH and thus have limited iron available for uptake by plants.

Figure 3: Strategy I and Strategy II mechanisms for iron uptake. Strategy I plants induce the activity of a proton ATPase, a ferric chelate reductase, and a ferrous iron transporter when faced with iron limitation.

In contrast,Strategy II plants synthesize and secrete phytosiderophores PS into the soil in in response to iron deficiency. Figure 4: Nodulation of legumes.

Process of root cell colonization by rhizobacteria. Nodule formed by nitrogen fixing bacteria on a root of a pea plant genus Pisum. Beyer P. Golden Rice and "Golden" crops for human nutrition.

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