Assimilation of Nitrogen Dioxide in Selected Plant Taxa

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The production of a novel “nitrogen‐dioxide‐philic plant” that can grow with NO2 as the sole nitrogen source was investigated as a possible solution to pollution. 217 plant taxa were screened for the assimilation of NO2, among them 50 wild herbaceous plants collected from roadsides, 60 cultivated herbaceous plants and 107 cultivated woody plants. It was discovered that the NO2‐derived reduced nitrogen [μg N/mg dry weight] differed by a factor of 657 between the highest (Eucalyptus viminalis, 6.57) and lowest (Tillandsia ionantha and T. caputmedusae, 0.01) level in the 217 taxa. The capability of plants to assimilate NO2 was also found to change in a family‐dependent manner. Compositae, Myrtaceae, Salicaceae and Solanaceae had taxa with high NO2 assimilation capability, while none of the Gramineae, Theaceae and Rosaceae plants examined showed high NO2 assimilation capability. The 217 taxa included two species of the Solanaceae family (tobacco and petunia), both of which showed a high NO2 assimilation and their reduced nitrogen derived from NO2 was the third and twenty‐sixth highest. This suggested that the Solanaceae family includes plants of high NO2 assimilation.Therefore, in this study eight taxa of the Solanaceae family and four taxa of other families were investigated for NO2 assimilation in the same manner as reported previously by the fumigation of plants with 15N‐labelled NO2 followed by the mass spectroscopic analysis based upon the reduced nitrogen derived from NO2. The eight taxa Solanaceae included tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and petunia (Petunia X hybrida), ground cherry (Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), datura (Datura innoxia), potato vine (Solanum jasminoides), red pepper (Capsicum annuum) and green pepper (Capsicum annuum var. grossum SENDTN.). The four taxa included two ivy cultivars (Hedera helix “Pittsburgh” and Hedera helix “Wonder”), an evergreen creeper (Ficus thunbergii) and kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus).Among the twelve taxa, kenaf, tobacco and ground cherry showed the highest, second and third highest values, respectively, of reduced nitrogen derived from NO2 in plants, which reflects the capability to assimilate NO2‐nitrogen. The quantitative significance of these findings is discussed in relation to the reduction of nitrogenous pollution by the atmospheric NO2 pollution.