ON THE EFFECT OF COPPER AND MANGANESE 

 ON THE IRON STATUS OF HIGHER PLANTS 



hy JoRMA Erkama, Ph.D. 



Biochemical Institute of the University, Helsinki. Finland 



The parallelism of diflFerent physiological processes has become 

 more and more obvious in recent developments of biochemistry. 

 This point of view is very important also when interpreting the 

 role of trace elements in the physiology of plants. The character- 

 istic properties of an element only become clear if studied in 

 conjunction with other metabolic factors. Contrasts and coinci- 

 dences, as well as interactions and antagonisms, between various 

 elements will reveal many details about their physiological prop- 

 erties which would never have been discovered if the elements 

 had been examined on their own. 



Table 10: Variations in copper, iron, and manganese content of samples analysed: — • 



Taking both their structure and their biological effects into 

 consideration, copper and manganese— with a third important 

 element, iron— form a physiological unit. By studying these three 

 heavy metals, at the same time, we will obtain useful new ideas 

 about their physiological functions (6). 



