Seedlings of Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco were grown in fertilized silty clay, silt loam, and loamy sand in a growth chamber. Needle water potentials hardly changed as soil water potential, ψs, dropped to about −2.5 MPa. At ψs = −0.6 MPa, the effect of soil texture on water uptake rate was statistically significant (p = 0.01). Calculated water uptake resistance (from soil to foliage), R, was hardly affected by ψs between −0.5 and −1.0 MPa, but nearly doubled as ψs fell from −1.0 to −2.2 MPa. Plant water resistance is inferred to change relatively little over this range. Upper limits of soil resistance at ψs > −2.5 MPa, estimated (by Gardner's equation) for silt loam and silty clay, are too low to make a large contribution to R, or to the change in R with ψs, or to the large differences in average R among different textures at ψs values from −0.5 to −2.2 MPa. It is inferred that contact resistance, Rc, is large, varies significantly with ψs, and may vary with texture. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity differences theoretically account for a relationship of Rc, with texture, and, together with possible root shrinkage, could account for a relationship of Rc, with ψs. Mycorrhizal development in these fertilized seedlings was too slight to justify consideration of hyphal resistance.
A novel putative microtubule-associated protein is involved in arbuscule development during arbuscular mycorrhiza formation