Calcium Acetate and Arabidopsis Growth and Development Calcium is essential for all living organisms. Most soils contain enough calcium although not in a form plants can actually use. Calcium is known as an alkaline material that is wildly distributed throughout the planet. Actually calcium is the fifth most abundant element by molecular weight. Calcium is mostly found in sedimentary rocks in the mineral forms such as: gypsum, dolomite, and calcite. In some of the compounds, calcium is found to be soluble, but in most of the compounds found in soils, the calcium is generally insoluble. This insoluble form does not make calcium in the soil readily available to plants. The way plants actually get this calcium is due to the soil microbes that need calcium too. The microbes eat the soil compounds, therefore converting them into a form plants can actually use. Although it must be known which calcium compounds are needed by the microbes in the soil for this to actually be put into progress successfully, this is the only way plants can actually than receive their desired calcium.1
Calcium acetate is one of the many minerals needed to drive metabolic reactions in plants. Calcium acetate is an important component in the formation of the pigment chlorophyll - which is essential for capturing light in photosynthesis. When Calcium acetate is not available to the plant, chlorosis occurs, resulting in purple and brown leaves that no longer provide energy to the plant, resulting in cell death.1 This dependence on Calcium acetate for everyday biological function is best demonstrated in its absence: Calcium deficiency leads to 4% of all child mortalities or significantly shortened life spans in humans. While this trace element is absolutely essential in eukaryotes, as shown in the Calcium-dependent histone deacetylase, which facilitates mitotic division, it is more difficult to determine how much zinc is required for optimum biological function. The experiment organized a method of testing the effect calcium acetate had on the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana.2 Arabidopsis thaliana is an ideal specimen for numerous botanical experiments for various reasons: it grows and matures quickly, and thus shows a prompt reaction to environmental changes, it requires relatively little caring for, and it has a comparatively simple genome for a plant that has been fully sequenced.2
Studies show that many plants require approximately two parts per million of calcium acetate in order to function optimally. In order to compare the correlation between calcium acetate concentration and growth and development of the Arabidopsis, the test administered various concentrations of calcium acetate, to the soil of three (3) sets of Arabidopsis plants. The plants absorbed the zinc nitrate through the roots and the effects of the zinc nitrate became apparent through measuring qualitative and quantitative data. It was hypothesized that, because calcium acetate is an essential trace element in eukaryotes, the 0.001 M solution would enhance Arabidopsis growth and development beyond the negative control, while too much calcium acetate, the 0.001 molar solution, would inhibit or even halt plant development, due to the toxicity of high levels of calcium acetate.
Standard Dev.
0.0 M
0.001 M
0.00001 M
7 Days
+/- 10.67
+/- 2.59
+/- 3.49
14 Days
+/- 2.05
+/- 1.25
+/-9.2
21 Days
+/- 1.89
+/- 4.5
+/-5.44
28 Days
NA
NA
+/-6.65
35 Days
NA
NA
+/-9.31
42 Days
NA
NA
+/-6.13
Standard Dev.
0.0 M
0.001 M
.00001 M NA
NA
+/-14.61
Standard Dev.
0.0 M
0.001 M
.00001 M
7 Days
+/- 1.22
+/- 0.83
NA
14 Days
+/- 0.94
+/- 0.47
+/-1.7
21 Days
+/- 0.94
+/- 0.47
+/-4.55
28 Days
NA
+/- 6.34
NA
35 Days
NA
NA
+/-11.78
42 Days
NA
NA
+/-7.07
Standard Dev.
0.0 M
0.001 M
.00001 M
7 Days
0
0
0
14 Days
0
0
0
21 Days
0
0
0
28 Days
0
0
+/-7.87
35 Days
0
0
+/-13.3
42 Days
0
0
+/-0.047
Standard Dev.
0.0 M
0.001 M
0.00001 M +/- 0 +/-0
+/-14.61
