Effects of Ca2+ ions antagonistic to Al3+ ions poisoningin root growth , cell division and nucleolusin root tip cells of Allium cepa

The effects of different aluminium chloride concentrations together with varying calciumchloride concentrations on root growth, cell division and nucleoli in root tip cells of Allium cepa werestudied. The concentrations used for aluminium chloride were 10-4, 10-3 and 10-2 mol/L ; and for calcium chloride were 10-5 , 10-4 , 10-3 and 10-2 mol/L, respectively. The results showed that after thetreatments with 10-2 to 10-3 mol/L Al3+ , root growth was severely inhibited , a large nurnber of thecells with c-mitosis were induced and the nucleolar material was extruded from the nucleus into the cytoplasm. However , the treatments with 10-2 to 10-3 mol/L of Al3+ together with 10-2)to 10-5 mol/LCa2+ suggested that Ca2+ gave the obviously protective effects against Al3+ poisoning in root growth.cell division and nucleoli of the root tip cells in A. cepa. The possible mechanism of these protective effects of Ca2+) is also briefly discussed.