Comparison of research methods for silicon uptake kinetics of rice

Rice(Oryza sativas L.cv.Shanyou 63) was employed as a model plant to study silicon(Si) uptake kinetic characterization using both the general depletion and modified depletion methods.The data were fitted by different methods. The results showed that the kinetics parameters for Si uptake were dependent upon the experimental methods,data analysis and the expression of dimension.The experimental data should be compared using different data processing methods and meanwhile statistical analysis should be performed to test the significance of the determination co-efficient (R2) to achieve the most convincing and reliable kinetics parameters.Based on the values of R2 from this study,we can draw the conclusion that the modified depletion method was better than the general depletion method.Among the different data processing methods,the plotting method was the best.When Vmax was expressed as mg/(g·h),DW,more ideal values of the kinetic parameters could be expected.