Apoplastic barriers effectively block oxygen permeability across outer cell layers of rice roots under deoxygenated conditions: roles of apoplastic pores and of respiration.

*Despite the importance of the barrier to oxygen losses of the roots of hygrophytes growing in wet environments devoid of oxygen, there are few data available on permeability coefficients for O(2) across outer root cell layers (P(OPR)) and how they may change in response to low O(2). *A gas perfusion technique was used to measure the P(OPR) of rice (Oryza sativa) plants grown in either aerated or deoxygenated solution. The contributions of the apoplast and of living cells to the overall P(OPR) were characterized either by blocking apoplastic pores with precipitates of brown Cu(2)[Fe(CN)(6)] or by killing cells with 0.1 N HCl. *Compared with that of plants from aerated hydroponics, the P(OPR) of plants grown in deoxygenated medium was smaller by an order of magnitude. Precipitates resulting from CuSO(4)/K(4)[Fe(CN)(6)] treatment only formed in plants grown in aerated solution, where they reduced the P(OPR) by 5-20%. Killing of root segments with HCl increased P(OPR) in plants grown in both conditions by 20-55%. *The results indicated that apoplastic barriers effectively restricted radial O(2) loss. The relative role of the respiratory O(2) consumption of root peripheral layers increased as P(OPR) decreased.