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Oecologia (2014) 176:345–355DOI 10.1007/s00442-014-3033-4

PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY - ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Convergence of a specialized root trait in plants from nutrient‑impoverished soils: phosphorus‑acquisition strategy in a nonmycorrhizal cactus

A. Abrahão · H. Lambers · A. C. H. F. Sawaya · P. Mazzafera · R. S. Oliveira

Received: 8 March 2014 / Accepted: 30 July 2014 / Published online: 19 August 2014 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

concentrations. We conclude that the sand-binding root specialization in this nonmycorrhizal cactus functions similar to that of cluster roots, which efficiently enhance P acquisition in other habitats with very low P availability.

Keywords Carboxylates · Cerrado · Manganese · Root exudates · Root hairs

Introduction

Nutrient availability is one of the main environmental filters influencing plant species distribution (Lambers et al. 2008a). In old landscapes, plant productivity tends to be phospho-rus (P)-limited, rather than nitrogen (N)-limited, because P is originally present in the soil parent material and then lost due to erosion, leaching and occlusion, while N is vir-tually absent from the parent material and gradually accu-mulates through biological fixation and atmospheric depo-sition (Walker and Syers 1976; Turner and Condron 2013). Hopper (2009) introduced the concept of OCBILs (Old, Climatically-Buffered, Infertile Landscapes), based on three floristic provinces: the fynbos vegetation in South Africa, the South West Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR), and the Venezuelan Pantepuis, but surmised that other parts of South America could be classified as OCBILs. OCBILs are among the most nutrient-impoverished environments in the world (Lambers et al. 2010). The plant species diversity in OCBILs reflects diversity of plant nutritional strategies (Lambers et al. 2010; Olde Venterink 2011).

A number of plant responses and adaptations have been described for P-impoverished habitats (Lambers et al. 2008a, b, 2010), including root proliferation in shallow soil horizons (Lynch and Brown 2001) and increased abun-dance and length of root hairs (Bates and Lynch 2001).

Abstract In old, phosphorus (P)-impoverished habitats, root specializations such as cluster roots efficiently mobi-lize and acquire P by releasing large amounts of carboxy-lates in the rhizosphere. These specialized roots are rarely mycorrhizal. We investigated whether Discocactus placen‑tiformis (Cactaceae), a common species in nutrient-poor campos rupestres over white sands, operates in the same way as other root specializations. Discocactus placenti‑formis showed no mycorrhizal colonization, but exhibited a sand-binding root specialization with rhizosheath forma-tion. We first provide circumstantial evidence for carboxy-late exudation in field material, based on its very high shoot manganese (Mn) concentrations, and then firm evidence, based on exudate analysis. We identified predominantly oxalic acid, but also malic, citric, lactic, succinic, fumaric, and malonic acids. When grown in nutrient solution with P concentrations ranging from 0 to 100 μM, we observed an increase in total carboxylate exudation with decreasing P supply, showing that P deficiency stimulated carboxylate release. Additionally, we tested P solubilization by citric, malic and oxalic acids, and found that they solubilized P from the strongly P-sorbing soil in its native habitat, when the acids were added in combination and in relatively low

Communicated by Jason P. Kaye.

A. Abrahão · A. C. H. F. Sawaya · P. Mazzafera · R. S. Oliveira (*) Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, UNICAMP, P.O. Box: 6109, Campinas, SP 13083-970, Brazile-mail: rafaelsoliv@gmail.com; rafaelso@unicamp.br

H. Lambers · R. S. Oliveira School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

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The presence of abundant root hairs allows the formation of rhizosheaths in sand-binding roots. Rhizosheaths are sheaths of soil particles strongly adhered to the root surface formed through the exudation of mucilage (McCully 1999), with increasing evidence for a role in nutrient acquisition (Smith et al. 2011; Hayes et al. 2014). A relatively large fraction of plant species in severely P-impoverished envi-ronments are nonmycorrhizal and exhibit alternative root specializations (Miller 2005), such as cluster roots (Neu-mann and Martinoia 2002; Shane et al. 2005) and dauci-form roots (Lamont 1974; Shane et al. 2005). These root specializations are recognized for their ability to acquire sparingly soluble forms of P (Skene 1998; Shane et al. 2005), mainly by releasing a large amount of root exudates, such as organic anions and phosphatases (Raghothama 1999) in a small volume of rhizosphere soil (Dinkelaker et al. 1995). These nonmycorrhizal specializations are a mining strategy to access poorly available nutrients, as opposed to the scavenging mycorrhizal strategy (Lambers et al. 2008a, b).

Organic anions (or carboxylates) are root exudates involved in nutrient acquisition of the mining strategy (Hinsinger 2001; Lambers et al. 2006). Some species increase carboxylate exudation in response to P, K or Fe deficiency (Hoffland et al. 1992; Jones 1998; Playsted et al. 2006). Mobilization of P by organic anions can occur by direct ligand exchange, where the organic anion replaces P on ligand-exchange surfaces, or by ligand-promoted mineral dissolution, by ligand adsorption followed by subsequent detachment of the metal–ligand complex (Johnson and Loeppert 2006; Lambers et al. 2008a). The release of car-boxylates occurs predominantly at the root tips and mobi-lizes micronutrients from the soil (Lambers et al. 2006). In cluster-rooted plants, as a result of rapid rates of carboxylate release, soil manganese (Mn) is mobilized (Grierson and Attiwill 1989; Dinkelaker et al. 1995) and accumulates in leaves (Gardner and Boundy 1983; Shane et al. 2005; Muler et al. 2014). This suggests that plant Mn concentrations may be used as a proxy for carboxylate release in P-poor soils (Hayes et al. 2014).

In Brazil, extensive areas of severely nutrient-impover-ished soils are found in the cerrado, a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000), particularly across the campos rupestres at the Espinhaço range. These areas are known for their plant species diversity (Alves and Kolbek 1994), but with the exception of two recent studies focused on carnivorous plants (Pereira et al. 2012; Nishi et al. 2013), remarkably little is known about the nutritional strategies of campos rupestres species. Here, we assess the mycor-rhizal status, morphology, anatomy, and analyze the func-tioning of a sand-binding root specialization in Discocactus placentiformis (Lehmann) K. Schumann 1894 (Cactaceae), a common species in campos rupestres. We also investigate

the ability of organic acids to solubilize P from the soil in its natural habitat. Based on observations on severely P-impoverished habitats in Australia (Lambers et al. 2006) and South Africa (Lamont 1982), we hypothesized that D. placentiformis roots would be nonmycorrhizal, and have alternative root adaptations. These alternative strategies were expected to be similar in function to cluster roots and dauciform roots (Shane et al. 2006; Playsted et al. 2006), and the roots were hypothesized to exhibit increased car-boxylate exudation under P deficiency. We expected that D. placentiformis presented high concentrations of shoot Mn, as a result of a P-mobilizing carboxylate-releasing strategy.

Materials and methods

Study site and species selection

Soils of campos rupestres are severely nutrient-impover-ished (Benites et al. 2003; de Campos 2012; Cândido 2012) with high porosity and permeability. The soils in these environments are rather heterogeneous, ranging from thin soil layers between rock outcrops to deep sandy deposi-tions in valleys and depressions. Soil resin P at the collec-tion site is less than 1 mg kg−1 (CB-1 in De Campos 2012).

Discocactus placentiformis (Fig. 1a) is a globose cac-tus species that occurs abundantly only on sandstone rocks, quartz sand, and gravel in these cerrado campos rupestres (Machado et al. 2013). Most subpopulations are small and isolated from each other in the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais of Brazil (Martin and James 2009), exploited for the production of cactus candy, when located close to towns and villages, and threatened by habitat loss due to Eucaplyptus plantations (Machado et al. 2013). We observed in the field that the roots of D. placentiformis strongly adhered sand and were morphologically similar to sand-binding roots described for Anarthriaceae and Cyper-aceae (Smith et al. 2011; Shane et al. 2011).

We collected 25 young plants and transplanted them into PVC tubes (2.4 l; 10 cm diameter and 30 cm high) filled with soil from their native habitat in a sandy shrubland in Parque Estadual da Serra do Cabral, in the municipal-ity of Joaquim Felício, Minas Gerais, south-eastern Bra-zil (17°42′S, 44°11′W, 1030 m altitude) in January 2010 and 2011. We transported the plants to the greenhouse of the Laboratory of Plant Functional Ecology, University of Campinas, where they were allowed to acclimate for 6 months until the beginning of the experiment.

Root morphology, anatomy and mycorrhizal colonization

We collected the whole root system and fine, ramified roots (<5 mm) from six individuals during the growing season

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(wet summer). The roots were preserved in 70 % ethanol (v/v) (Koske and Gemma 1989) and their percentage of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization was determined at the Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, ”Luiz de Queiroz” Col-lege of Agriculture (ESALQ), Piracicaba-SP, following the protocols of Giovanetti and Mosse (1980). Roots with pri-mary and secondary growth were sampled for anatomical procedures. Root fragments were cut and fixed in FAA 50 (Johansen 1940). Roots were dehydrated in a graded etha-nol series and embedded in Historesin®. Serial sections with rotatory microtome were stained in toluidine blue, and observed under an Olympus BX51 microscope (New York, USA) equipped with an Olympus® DP71 camera (Tokyo, Japan). We measured the root hairs using the camera soft-ware. For morphological descriptions, the plants were removed from the soil and their roots gently washed to

remove adhering sand. Individual roots were photographed with a digital camera mounted on a stereoscopic micro-scope (Leica® MSV266) using Leica Application Suite (LAS) v.3.8.0 (Heerbrugg, Switzerland) for focus stacking.

Root exudation

Acid exudation

To check if the roots of D. placentiformis were capable of releasing any acid exudates, prior to the hydroponic experi-ment, we removed four plants from the pots, gently washed their roots with distilled water and placed young root frag-ments onto agar plates with 1 % (w/v) bromocresol purple, a pH indicator (Neumann et al. 2000). This pH indicator switches from purple to yellow at pH values below 5. We

Fig. 1 Discocactus placentiformis’ root specialization. a D. pla‑centiformis in its native habitat. b General view of the root system. c Washed root system of D. placentiformis (p) with primary growth root structure and covered with thin root hairs (s) with secondary growth structure without root hairs. d Root hairs from the root sys-tem of D. placentiformis in structure. e Cross-section of the D. pla‑centiformis root system with primary growth structure. Root hairs (h)

are extensions of epidermal cells, being characterized as unicellular trichomes. f Cross-section of the D. placentiformis root system with secondary growth structure. Note the absence of root hairs. g D. pla‑centiformis roots in agar plates with bromocresol purple that switches from purple to yellow at pH < 5. Scale bars (b) 4 cm, (c) 0.5 cm, (d) 500 μm, (e) 100 μm, (f) 50 μm

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chose young, but fully developed root sections, as they are usually the most active in exudate release (Watt and Evans 1999). We also collected six additional individuals in the field for Mn analysis. Plants were dried until constant weight, ground, digested with nitric and perchloric acids and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Perkin-Elmer, MA, USA) at the ESALQ.

Phosphorus‑concentration effects on carboxylate exudation

To determine if D. placentiformis was capable of regulat-ing P uptake depending on P availability, an experiment was carried out by growing plants in nutrient solutions at a range of P concentrations (0, 10, 50, and 100 μM P, n = 5, 10, 5, and 5, respectively) for 8 months. Each plant was cultivated in a plastic bag inside a PVC pot filled with 2 l of nutrient solution containing (in μM): 400 NO3

−, 200 Ca2+, 200 K+, 154 SO4

2−, 54 Mg2+, 20 Cl−, 2,0 Fe-EDTA, 0.24 Mn2+, 0.10 Zn2+, 0.02 Cu2+, 2.4 H3BO3, and 0.3 Mo4+ prepared in deionized water (pH = 5.8). PVC pots were maintained inside a polystyrene box to provide thermal insulation. The polystyrene box was covered with a black polypropylene perforated lid to allow roots to enter the solution. Shoots were supported in the center of a foam disc that made a light-tight seal. Each plant was provided with an aeration tube with an aquarium stone at the end of the tube to facilitate air dissolution in the nutrient solu-tion. Nutrient solutions were replaced three times per week. Plants in the greenhouse were subjected to natural daily and seasonal cycles of solar radiation, temperature was not controlled in the greenhouse and varied from 8 to 36 °C, and relative humidity varied from 10 to 100 %.

Exudate collection and analyses

After detecting acid exudates by the bromocresol purple assay, we wanted to identify the root organic acid exu-dates. Three 1–2 cm sections of fresh root tips per plant were collected and gently shaken in 0.3 or 0.6 ml of 0.1 % (v/v) Mili-Q water-solved formic acid (pH = 5.8) to avoid microbial consumption of the organic acids. We did not use calcium chloride because previous experiments showed that it interfered in ionization of organic acids on UPLC-MS analyses. After 5 min, the root tips were removed and the samples were frozen at −20 °C until analysis. Each root tip was weighed in order to express acid concentra-tions per unit root weight. Working standards were citric, malic, oxalic, succinic, lactic, maleic, tartaric, DL-isocitric, malonic, and fumaric acid, which are known to be released from roots and may be involved in P mobilization (Roelofs et al. 2001).

Samples were analyzed using an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography system with a triple quadrupole

mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS) and an electrospray ioni-zation source, Acquity UPLC-TQD (Waters, Milford, MA, USA). The compounds were separated with a Waters Acquity BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm) with 1.7 μm particle size at a temperature of 30 °C. The mobile phase consisted of Mili-Q water containing 0.1 % (v/v) of for-mic acid (phase A), and methanol (phase B) at a flow-rate of 0.2 ml min−1 and the injected volume was 10 μl. Elu-tion was carried out using a gradient starting with 99 % A, maintained until 2.5 min, then ramping up to 50 % A by 3 min, maintaining this concentration for 4 min, then returning to the initial conditions and re-equilibrating the system until 6 min. All data were acquired and processed with MassLynxV4 software (Waters) MS detection in the negative ion mode and Selected Ion Mode was used for the specific detection of analytes. Source temperature was 150 °C, and desolvation temperature was 350 °C. Capillary voltage was −2.8 kV and cone −25 V.

Phosphate-sorption curves

To measure native soil P-sorption capacity (S = S0 + S′), we produced phosphate-sorption curves. Five soil repli-cates (0–30 cm) from campos rupestres of Serra do Cabral were collected, air-dried, 2 mm-sieved and stored at 4 °C until required. Initial P concentration (S0, in mg kg−1 soil) was measured using Olsen’s and Colwell’s method for extraction with a soil: solution ratio of 1:100 (Olsen et al. 1954; Colwell 1963) and introduced in the sorption equa-tion as suggested by Barrow (2000). An aliquot of 6 ml of acidified soil extract was collected and the concentration of phosphate was measured with the malachite green method (Motomizu et al. 1983).

Sorption curves were prepared by adding 5 g of soil mixed with 100 ml of background solution (0.02 M KCl) containing P added as KH2PO4 in concentrations of 0, 2, 4, 8, 20 and 25 mg P l−1. Samples were shaken at room temperature for 16 h at 100 rpm. The concentration of phosphate was measured with the malachite green method (Motomizu et al. 1983). Sorbed P (S′, in mg kg−1 soil) was calculated as the difference between P added (in mg l−1) and P observed in solution (C, in mg l−1). Both Freundlich (1) and Langmuir’s (2) equations were fitted to the adsorp-tion curves as in Sharpley et al. (2008) and Graetz and Nair (2009), as follows:

The coefficients of the Freundlich Eq. (1) were obtained by using the linear form (log S = log a + b log C), where S is P-sorption capacity (S = S0 + S′), S0 is initial soil P,

(1)S = aCb

(2)C

S=

1

KSmax

+C

Smax

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as measured by Colwell’s method, S′ is calculated sorbed P (both in mg P kg−1 soil), C is P concentration observed in solution (C, in mg l−1), and a and b are coefficients. In the Langmuir Eq. (2), Smax is maximum P sorption capac-ity, calculated as the reciprocal of the slope of the C/S vs. C plot; and K, is the binding energy, calculated as the slope/intercept of the same plot.

Effect of organic acids on P sorption

P solubilization by carboxylic acids by the three major carboxylic acids released by D. placentiformis was meas-ured: citric (CIT), malic (MAL), oxalic (OXA) acids, and the three of them together (CMO). One gram of steam-sterilized soil was placed in 15-ml centrifuge tubes and mixed with 5 mM KCl background solution with carbox-ylate acids added alone or in mixtures. The samples were shaken for 20 min at 260 rpm and centrifuged at 11,000g for 20 min. The supernatant was collected with a syringe and filtered through a 45-µm syringe-filter, and P was ana-lyzed as described above. All treatments were carried out in three to five replicates.

Statistical analyses

Statistical analyses were performed using R (R Core Team 2012) and Statistica 8.0 (StatSoft 2007). Comparisons of acid concentrations within plants, regardless of the treat-ment, were made using Friedman ANOVA (nonparametric two-way ANOVA) (Kendall 1970). Comparisons of frac-tions of total exudation of each acid were performed with the Kruskal–Wallis test (nonparametric one-way ANOVA). Comparisons of total organic acid exudation between treat-ments were done by model selection with linear mixed models. The linear mixed model approach allowed includ-ing hierarchy in the factors, as we had several measures of root exudation per plant. The linear mixed-effect models were analyzed with the lme4 package (Bates et al. 2012). Model selection was performed by evaluating likelihood using a χ2 distribution, and included two different mod-els. In the first model, P treatment was used as fixed effect, and in the second model, no fixed effect was used. Random effects in both models included plants and repeated meas-ures within plants. Values with Cook’s distance greater than one were considered outliers and removed from the anal-yses using the influence ME package to calculate Cook’s distance (Nieuwenhuis et al. 2012). Post-hoc comparisons were performed using Tukey contrasts with the lsmeans package (Lenth 2014). Fumaric and malonic acids were found in only a few samples, and therefore a linear regres-sion was used, avoiding outlier exclusion to reduce the loss of degrees of freedom. The effect of organic acids on P sol-ubilization was verified with simple linear regressions.

Results

Morphology, anatomy and mycorrhizal colonization

The root system of D. placentiformis consisted of a main branched tap root with several branched lateral roots (Fig. 1b). In the field, a small cactus (around 8 cm diam-eter) had roots up to 40–50 cm long. During primary root growth, these lateral roots were white and showed a high density of root hairs along their entire axis. During second-ary growth, root hairs disappeared and roots turned to yel-low or brown (Fig. 1c). Anatomical sections showed that root hairs from roots with 200 μm diameter were more than 1 mm long (Fig. 1d, e) and were lost during second-ary growth (Fig. 1f). No mycorrhizal colonization was observed on any individual of this species.

Root exudates

Using bromocresol purple, we observed that D. placenti‑formis roots does exude acids, as shown by the yellow aura around the roots (Fig. 1g). In UPLC-MS analyses, both the quantity and composition of carboxylates released from D. placentiformis roots varied according to P supply (Fig. 2). We identified predominantly oxalic, but also malic, citric, lactic, succinic, fumaric, and malonic acid in decreasing order of concentration (Friedman ANOVA χ2 = 112.1429, p < 0.0001). Maleic and isocitric acids were observed in trace amounts only and were not included in the analyses.

0 10 50 100

MalonicFumaricSuccinicLacticCitricMalicOxalic

P supply (µmol l −1)

Aci

d ex

udat

ion

(µm

ol g

−1 fw

t min

−1)

0

10

20

30

40

50

Fig. 2 Median exudation of carboxylates from root tips of Discocac‑tus placentiformis grown at a range of P concentrations in nutrient solution (n = 5 plants per treatment, 3 roots tips per plant)

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When we analyzed total exudation with the linear mixed models, the model that included P treatment as a fixed fac-tor fitted better (AIC = 802.33) than the model without the P treatment. (AIC = 804.58) ( χ2 = 4.2512; p = 0.0392; Fig. 3). The best model showed that total exudation (sum of all acids) declined significantly with increasing P supply (y = −0.29x + 42.97, Correlation of fixed effects = −0.72). Although total exudation seemed to peak in the first level of P addition, post hoc pairwise comparisons using Tukey contrasts did not show differences between each pair of treatments. A high variability in total carboxylate concentra-tions was observed in all treatments, but only one value was considered an outlier (Cook’s distance greater than 1) and removed from the analyses (Fig. 3).

When we analyzed the exudation of each acid sepa-rately with linear mixed-model approach we observed that oxalic acid exudation decreased with increasing P concen-tration (y = 30.837–0.185x, χ2 = 4.461; p = 0.035), but P treatment did not affect exudation of citric, succinic, lactic, malic, fumaric, or malonic acids. Shoot Mn con-centrations in D. placentiformis were remarkably high, ranging from 451 to 1156 mg kg−1 dry weight (DW) (960 ± 358 mg kg−1 DW, mean ± standard deviation), whereas the plant community presented foliar Mn concen-trations of 127 ± 90 mg kg−1 (DW) (Oliveira et al., unpub-lished data).

Phosphate-sorption equations

Campos rupestres soils presented native P (S0, Colwell P) of 6.5 ± 0.8 mg P kg−1 soil (mean ± standard devia-tion). An average of 93 % of the added P was sorbed by

the soil in all treatments, and a maximum of P sorption (Smax) of 762 mg P per kg−1 of soil was calculated by Langmuir’s model. Experimental data conformed well to both Freundlich’s (r2 = 0.957, p < 0.001; Fig. 4) and Langmuir’s equation (r2 = 0.9328, p < 0.001; Fig. 4), but Langmuir’s model fitted better (smaller residual sum of squares, RSS = 5.55 10−7) than Freundlich’s model (RSS = 0.11).

0 20 40 60 80 100

050

100

150

200

P supply (µmol l −1)

Tota

l exu

datio

n (µ

mol

g−1

fwt m

in−1

)

Fig. 3 Total exudation from Discocactus placentiformis root tips grown at a range of concentrations of phosphorus in nutrient solution (each circle represents a root tip, n = 5 plants per treatment, 3 roots tips per plant, χ2 = 4.2512; p = 0.0392); outliers were excluded)

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

0

100

200

300

400

Solution P concentration (mg l−1)

Sor

bed

P (

mg

kg−1

soi

l)

Fig. 4 Sorption behavior of phosphate (P) on native sandy soils from Serra do Cabral, Minas Gerais, Brazil, fitted with the Langmuir (solid line) and Freundlich (dashed line) equations (n = 5 soil replicates). P added ranged from 0 to 25 mg l−1

0 5 10 15 20

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Organic acid concentration (µmol l−1)

Sol

ubili

zed

phos

phat

e (m

g kg

−1)

Fig. 5 Soil phosphorus (P) concentration in native sandy soils from Serra do Cabral, Minas Gerais, Brazil, as affected by the addition of organic acids (citric, malic and oxalic acids), n = 3–5 replicates

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Phosphate solubilization by organic acids

In the treatment with the three acids together (CMO), between 0 and 20 μM, we observed an increase in soluble P concentration from 3.4 to 4.2 mg P kg−1 of soil (Fig. 5; r2 = 0.29; p = 0.025). We found no effect when we added single carboxylic acids alone, and no further increase in P solubilization when mixtures of CMO were added in excess of 20 μM, as expected because the negative effect of pH outweighed the positive effect of carboxylic anions.

Discussion

Similar to what is known for dominant plant species on severely P-impoverished soils in Australia and South Africa (Lamont 1982), D. placentiformis was found to be non-mycorrhizal. It presented high Mn in its shoots, and a spe-cialized root morphology, which was associated with the release of carboxylates, especially when plants were sub-jected to P deficiency.

Root morphology and anatomy

Roots of D. placentiformis are structurally different from cluster roots (Lamont 1982), since they do not form abun-dant determinate rootlets (Shishkova et al. 2008). However, they are functionally similar to cluster roots (Shane et al. 2006), in terms of their abundance of fine root hairs and the release of organic anions that enhance P uptake from P-impoverished soils. The morphology of the root sys-tem of D. placentiformis is similar to that of early stages of sand-binding roots of Lyginia barbata (Anarthriaceae) (Lamont 1982; Shane et al. 2005). The main difference between both root systems is that, in later developmen-tal stages, during secondary growth, D. placentiformis loses its root hairs, while root hairs of sand-binding roots of L. barbata become lignified and are persistent (Shane et al. 2011). Sand-binding activity in D. placentiformis is similar to that of grasses (McCully 1999) and other cacti (North and Nobel 1992) that form rhizosheaths. Rhizos-heath formation in grasses and cacti is restricted to young roots and develops until the disintegration of the epidermis and the loss of root hairs. Root hairs are a common root structure, but rhizosheath formation by abundant long root hairs is restricted to a few plant groups (Smith et al. 2011). The layer of soil tightly bound to the roots may promote water acquisition (North and Nobel 1992) as well as nutri-ent acquisition even in locally dry conditions (Nambiar 1976). In P-poor environments, root-hair abundance and length provide a competitive advantage to wild-type plants of Arabidopsis thaliana when compared to a root-hairless mutant (Bates and Lynch 2001). Root hairs also increase

surface area and expand the volume of soil from which nutrients can be absorbed, increasing the P-depletion zone beyond that of roots without root hairs (Peterson and Far-quhar 1996). The long root hairs (>0.5 cm) of D. placenti‑formis confer intimate contact with soil particles promoted by the rhizosheath and an extra surface area for P acquisi-tion, where P is a limiting resource.

Root carboxylate exudation

Discocactus placentiformis presented very high shoot Mn, providing an indication of rhizosphere carboxylate release (Jauregui and Reisenauer 1982; Gardner and Boundy 1983; Grierson and Attiwill 1989; Shane et al. 2005). The bro-mocresol purple experiment confirmed that the roots of D. placentiformis were capable of releasing acids in the rhizo-sphere, and the UPLC-MS analysis confirmed that they also released carboxylates. Overall carboxylate exudation was increased under P deficiency, as it is in Lupinus albus (Gardner et al. 1983; Keerthisinghe et al. 1998; Shane et al. 2003a, b) and species within Cyperaceae, Proteaceae, and Brassicaceae (Dinkelaker et al. 1995; Playsted et al. 2006; Chen et al. 2013). Roelofs et al. (2001) mentioned that exudation rates in Proteaceae species are faster than those previously presented. Here, we present exudation rates one order of magnitude greater than those reported by Roe-lofs et al. 2001. In the absence of root structures like clus-ter roots, which allow a local build-up of exudates, more carboxylates would need to be released to have the same effect. When comparing L. albus and L. angustifolius, for example, the latter does not form cluster roots, but releases more carboxylates than L. albus (Pearse et al. 2006). Similarly, to be effective, D. placentiformis might have to release more carboxylates than cluster-rooted species.

Oxalate was the carboxylate released in greatest quanti-ties by D. placentiformis, while dauciform roots of Cyper-aceae and cluster roots of Proteaceae release mainly citrate under P deficiency (Shane et al. 2003a, b; Playsted et al. 2006), although oxalate is also released (Hoffland et al. 2006). The ability to mobilize P increases with the num-ber of carboxyl groups. Citrate (a trivalent anion), malate, and oxalate (both divalent anions) have multiple carboxyl groups, and a great affinity for Fe3+ and Al3+, and replace phosphorus previously complexed by metals, increasing P availability (Oburger et al. 2009).

Therefore, oxalate mobilizes P from soil particles less efficiently than citrate (Bolan et al. 1994). However, the release of oxalate by D. placentiformis might be more effi-cient, because synthesis of the two-carbon oxalate requires less carbon than that of the six-carbon citrate; moreover, it is not a metabolic intermediate like citrate and malate (Dong et al. 2004). For example, Oryza sativa and Glycine max also release mainly oxalate under P deficiency (Dong

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et al. 2004; Hoffland et al. 2006), albeit in much smaller quantities. Finally, up-regulation of the rate of exudation at low P supply, as observed in D. placentiformis increases P mobilization, even if exuded in relatively low continuous amounts (Fox and Comerford 1992).

The release of oxalate by root tips can also be related to stress caused by Al (Zheng et al. 1998). Oxalate che-lates toxic metals, thus diminishing their inhibitory effects (Ma et al. 1998). Cerrado soils have high plant-available Al concentrations (Viani et al. 2011, 2014), and this is also true for the soils inhabited by the present cac-tus (Cândido 2012). We suggest that oxalate, in addition to mobilizing P, is also important for Al detoxification in D. placentiformis.

Phosphate-sorption equations

Campos rupestres soils presented low available P, between 5.7 and 7.5 mg P kg−1 soil (NaHCO3 extraction), or less than 1 mg P kg−1 soil (resin P) (de Campos 2012), similar to OCBILs (Witkowski and Mitchell 1987; Laliberté et al. 2012). We observed high sorption of P by soils, despite the sandy nature of campos rupestres soils (95 % of sand). The maximum P-sorption capacity is closely related to soil texture. Soils with higher proportions of silt or clay (lower proportions of sand) present higher availability of P-binding sites, increasing sorption capacity (Ullah et al. 1983), while soils with higher proportions of sand-sized particles are only poorly capable of retaining phosphorus. The P concentrations added ranged from 1 to 25 mg l−1, while the observed concentrations only reached 2 mg l−1. A surprisingly high maximum sorption capacity (Smax) of 762 mg P per kg−1 of soil was calculated using Langmuir’s model. Further mineralogical analyses are needed to assess the nature of these high P-sorbing particles in campos rupestes despite the high proportion of sand. Organic mat-ter decreases P-sorption capacity, as it competes with P for binding sites (Afif et al. 1995). The low organic matter con-tent (12 g kg−1 soil) of campos rupestres soils (de Campos 2012) additionally contributes to its high maximum sorp-tion capacity. This indicates that in addition to the low P status of campos rupestres soils, most of the P is sorbed to the soils. This characteristic of the soil requires specialized root functioning for P acquisition.

P solubilization by organic acids

We observed P solubilization by organic acids when added in combination at low concentrations (up to 20 μM of cit-ric, malic and oxalic acids). At higher concentrations, the solubilizing effect of the organic anions would have been offset by the negative effect of protons that were added with the carboxylic acids, which further acidified soil solution,

decreasing P solubility (Palomo et al. 2006). The range of organic acid concentrations that solubilized P was the same range that D. placentiformis released. Our results indicate that the release of carboxylic acids in combination, and at low concentrations was capable of efficient solubilization of P from the campos rupestres soils.

Concluding remarks

We found that a nonmycorrhizal cactus functioned suc-cessfully on severely P-impoverished soils, based on its high relative abundance (Machado et al. 2013). It occurred on soils with relatively high P-buffering capacity in cer-rado campos rupestres. The binding of sand grains by lat-eral roots indicates the release of root exudates, usually involved in mineral nutrition (Nagarajah et al. 1970). In our study, we observed that the exudation of carboxylates by the root tips of D. placentiformis decreased at high P supply, a similar response to that found for cluster roots and dauciform roots in other families. However, their sand-binding activity and rhizosheath formation suggests that other exudates, such as mucilages, may have been released as well. The intimate contact between roots and soil particles found in species forming cluster roots, dauci-form roots or rhizosheaths, as in D. placentiformis is part of their P-mining strategy (Lambers et al. 2008a, b). We provide evidence that the occurrence of the mining strat-egy can be expanded to South American P-impoverished habitats such as campos rupestres, and support the inclu-sion of these habitats as OCBILs. Taken together, these results indicate a functional convergence of nutrient-acqui-sition strategies for plants inhabiting severely P-impover-ished habitats.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, grant CNPq 474670/2008-2), Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, grant 10/17204-0) and Coordenação de Aper-feiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes). We thank H.G. Cândido, C. Pereira and A.V. Scatigna for the support in collecting the plants in the field. Additionally, we thank M.C. Campos, S.M. Car-mello-Guerreiro, N. Urquiza, J. Tamashiro, J.C. Galvão, L. Pereira, D.C. da Silva and D.P. de Souza for the methodological support and F.S.C. Takahashi for the help with statistical analyses. We also thank P.B. Costa, S.M.S. Costa, L. Franci and A. Dias, for their assistance. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful reviews of this manuscript.

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