CONSERVATION AND REUTILIZATION OF BARK PROTEINS IN APPLE TREES

Apple trees conserve nitrogen by translocating part of the nitrogenous material in senescing flowers and leaves to adjacent bark and wood tissue (Murneek, 1930; Oland, 1963). This conserved nitrogen is available to support growth when conditions for root uptake are poor, as in early spring.
The importance of these reserves in early growth has been demonstrated in apple and peach (Harley, Regeimbal and Moon, 1958; Oland, 1959; Taylor and May, 1967).

Reserve nitrogen is available as soluble nitrogenous compounds and as protein.
Oland (1959) and Taylor and May (1967) reported that proteins were only of secondary importance as sources of conserved nitrogen, but Tromp and Ovaa (1971) and O’Kennedy, Hennerty and Titus (1975a) claimed that proteins were of major importance.

This paper reports the cooperative research carried out at University College Dublin and the University of Illinois into the nature and functioning of the protein reserves in apple and on efforts to influence protein levels in apple trees grown in a conventional commercial system.

Symposium on Mineral Nutrition and Fruit Quality of Temperate Zone Fruit Trees

M.J. HENNERTY, B.T. O’KENNEDY, J.S. TITUS

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1980.92.63