Influences of Soda Soil on the Ultrastructure and Storage Inclusions of Chloroplasts of <i>Syringa oblata</i> Lindl.

Abstract

With a high pH value, soda soil restricts the growth of plants. It had previously been assumed that the inhibition of plant growth by neutral salt stress was partly due to the changes of the ultrastructure and storage inclusions of chloroplasts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of alkali-salt mixed stress of soda soil on chloroplasts of higher plant Syringa oblata Lindl. Testing S. oblata plants had grown for more than five years in soda soil, and transmission electron microscope was used for determining the ultrastructure and storage inclusions of chloroplasts. The results showed that some chloroplasts were destroyed, the normal chloroplasts became smaller, and the envelopes of the functional chloroplasts were slightly expanded generally in so da-stressed plants. The most noteworthy fact was that much more starch grains accumulated in the chloroplasts of S. oblata growing in soda soil than in neutral soil. The total contents of plastoglobules in chloroplasts did not change considerably, and plastoglobules with different electron densities appeared in chloroplasts in the plants growing in soda soil. We presume that the reduction of the volume and number of functional chloroplasts and the occupation of carbon resources by starch grains accumulated in chloroplasts were the possible reasons for the inhibition of S. oblata growth by soda soil. The accumulation of starch grains was one of the adaptive traits of S. oblata , which promoted the survival of plants in soda soil for that the starch grains could serve as a steady source of soluble sugars, which were known as protectors of plant cells under stressed conditions. Soda soil did not significantly change the total content of plastoglobules in chloroplasts, but changed their compositions.