AP Biology Question

Question

When planting crops, farmers rotate the types of plants that are planted for harvest in order to prevent the soil from being leached of essential minerals. If a farmer plants a crop that leaches the soil of phosphorous, which biomolecule will subsequent plants be unable to synthesize?

Answer 1

There are several types of biomolecules that have phosphorus in them. DNA and RNA (nucleotides) contain phosphorus, but also cell membranes are made of phospholipids. Too little phosphorus in the results in slow and stunted growth, along with changes in leaf color.