Eva Bacaicoa Ilundain

A research work at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) studied the involvement of the principal plant hormones in the response by plants to iron deficit. In concrete, she focused on cucumbers grown under hydroponic conditions (using mineral solutions instead of agricultural soil) and in situations of stress through iron privation. Biology graduate and researcher, Ms Eva Bacaicoa Ilundain explained, “the concentration of indole-3-acetic acid in the plant leaves plays a relevant role in triggering response mechanisms from the roots, which assimilate and transport iron to the interior of the plant”.

Iron deficiency is the origin of much economic loss to farmers, and which is why there are many research studies under way to find out what capacity plants have to resist this deficit and how it can be remedied. “Chelates have become the most efficacious source of iron to respond to these problems but, although their marketing is widespread, the quest for alternatives is on-going”, pointed out Ms Bacaicoa. Thus, the research is currently focused on finding out the control mechanisms of the plant itself, “which will enable the farmer to optimise costs in fertilisers and correctors”.

For her PhD she investigated the involvement of the principal plant hormones in the response by cucumber plant roots to iron deficit, the goal being to “clarify what the principal inductive signal is that activates the strategy of iron acquisition in non-graminean dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants, through the study of their hormonal nature, this being particularly relevant in the essential communication between the aerial part of the plant and its roots”.

With these results obtained, the researcher concludes that the triggering signal is the increase of concentration of indole-3-acetic acid. “The interaction of this plant hormone with the actions of other phytoregulators plays an important role in the regulation of acquisition strategy of iron developed by plants grown with a deficiency of this micronutrient”, she pointed out. In this way, applying fertiliser products with a specificity based on derivatives of this hormone “has shown improvements in iron uptake in vegetables and fruit, avoiding financial losses in the harvests due to the reduction in the quality and size of the fruit.”

The thesis, “Function of indole-3-acetic acid in the aerial part-root regulation of the radicular response to iron deficiency in the cucumber plant (Cucumis sativus, L.)”, was led by José María García-Mina Freire, Director of the R+D Department at the TimacAGRO company and associate lecturer at the Department of Chemistry and Edaphology in UPNA, Ms Bacaicoa’s PhD obtaining summa cum laude.

* Elhuyar translation, published in www.basqueresearch.com