Energy costs of salinity tolerance in crop plants: night-time transpiration and growth

Plants grow and transpire during the night. The aim of the present work was to assess the relative flows of carbon, water and solutes, and the energy involved, in sustaining night-time transpiration and leaf expansive growth under control and salt-stress conditions. Published and unpublished data were used, for barley plants grown in presence of 0.5-1 mM NaCl (control) and 100 mM NaCl. Night-time leaf growth presents a more efficient use of taken-up water compared with day-time growth. This efficiency increases several-fold with salt stress. Night-time transpiration cannot be supported entirely through osmotically driven uptake of water through roots under salt stress. Using a simple three- (root medium/cytosol/vacuole) compartment approach, the energy required to support cell expansion during the night is in the lower percentage region (0.03-5.5%) of the energy available through respiration, under both, control and salt-stress conditions. Use of organic (e.g. hexose equivalents) rather than inorganic (e.g. Na+, Cl-, K+) solutes for generation of osmotic pressure in growing cells, increases the energy demand by orders of magnitude, yet requires only a small portion of carbon assimilated during the day. Night-time transpiration and leaf expansive growth should be considered as a potential acclimation mechanism to salinity.