Magnesium in plants: uptake, distribution, function, and utilization by man and animals

Wilkinson, S.R. and Welch, R.M. and Mayland, H.F. and Grunes, D.L. (1990) Magnesium in plants: uptake, distribution, function, and utilization by man and animals. In: Siegel, Helmut, (ed.) Metal Ions in Biological Systems. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York and Basel, Switzerland.

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Abstract

Plants provide man with his primary needs--nutrition, clothing, and
shelter as well as medicinal, recreational, and esthestic benefits.
There are over 500,000 species of plants distributed over the earth.
Magnesium is an essential nutrient for plants and animals.
The criteria for the essentiality of elements for plants are as follows:
(1) the plant will be unable to complete its life cycle if
the element is removed from the plant nutrient medium; (2) the element
has a specific function which cannot be replaced by other elements;
or (3) the element is a necessary component of an essential
metabolite [1]. The relative abundance of Mg in plant life is less
than N, K, Ca, and similar to S and P. Intensive crop production
practices with fertilizers, improved plant cultivars, and best management
practices are commonly used today. These intense cultural
practices may mean an increasing frequency of Mg deficiencies as well
as the need for knowledge on economically sound practices to prevent
such deficiencies.
Plants are an important source of Mg to satisfy human and animal
requirements, and factors affecting Mg bioavailability need to
be identified. The objective of this chapter is to assess the importance,
distribution, function, and utilization of Mg in plant
growth and metabolism and in grazing ruminant animal production and
human health.

Item Type:	Book Section
NWISRL Publication Number:	0705
Subjects:	Animal > Animal health Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:55
Last Modified:	03 Jan 2017 17:59
Item ID:	776
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/776