Arabidopsis purple acid phosphatase 10 is a component of plant adaptive mechanism to phosphate limitation

When grown with inadequate quantities of inorganic phosphate (Pi), plants synthesize and secret acid phosphatases into the rhizosphere. These secreted acid phosphatases are thought to release the Pi group from organophosphates present in the surrounding environment and to thereby increase Pi availability to plants. So far, however, the genetic evidence to support this hypothesis is still lacking. Previously, we showed that overexpression of Arabidopsis purple acid phosphatase 10 (AtPAP10) improved the growth of plants on Pi-deficient medium (P-medium) supplemented with the organophosphate compound ADP; in contrast, the growth of atpap10 mutant lines was reduced on the same medium. In the current research, we determined the growth performance of these lines on P-medium supplemented with four other organophosphates. The results showed that AtPAP10 could utilize rhizosphere organophosphates other than ADP for plant growth but with different utilization efficiencies. This work provides further genetic evidence that AtPAP10 phosphatase is a component of plant adaptive mechanism to Pi limitation.