Abstract
UK wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has a low selenium (Se) concentration and agronomic biofortification with Se is a proposed solution. A possible limitation is that UK wheat is routinely fertilised with sulphur (S), which may affect uptake of Se by the crop. The response of wheat to Se and S fertilisation and residual effects of Se were determined in field trials over 2 consecutive years. Selenium fertilisation at 20 g ha−1 as sodium selenate increased grain Se by four to seven fold, up to 374 µg Se kg−1. Sulphur fertilisation produced contrasting effects in 2 years; in year 1 when the crop was not deficient in S, grain Se concentration was significantly enhanced by S, whereas in year 2 when crop yield responded significantly to S fertilisation, grain Se concentration was decreased significantly in the S-fertilised plots. An incubation experiment showed that addition of sulphate enhanced the recovery of selenate added to soils, probably through a suppression of selenate transformation to other unavailable forms in soils. Our results demonstrate complex interactions between S and Se involving both soil and plant physiological processes; S can enhance Se availability in soil but inhibit selenate uptake by plants. Furthermore, no residual effect of Se fertiliser applied in year 1 was found on the following crop.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams ML, Lombi E, Zhao FJ, McGrath SP (2002) Evidence of low selenium concentrations in UK bread-making wheat grain. J Sci Food Agric 82:1160–1165
Barrow NJ, Whelan BR (1989) Testing a mechanistic model. 7. The effects of pH and of electrolyte on the reaction of selenite and selenate with a soil. J Soil Sci 40:17–28
Bell PF, Parker DR, Page AL (1992) Contrasting selenate sulfate interactions in selenium-accumulating and nonaccumulating plant-species. Soil Sci Soc Am J 56:1818–1824
Broadley MR, White PJ, Bryson RJ, Meacham MC, Bowen HC, Johnson SE, Hawkesford MJ, McGrath SP, Zhao FJ, Breward N, Harriman M, Tucker M (2006) Biofortification of UK food crops with selenium. Proc Nutr Soc 65:169–181
Broadley M, Alcock A, Alford J, Cartwright P, Foot I, F-T SJ, Hart DJ, Hurst R, Knott P, Meacham MC, McGrath SP, Mowat H, Norman K, Scott P, Stroud JL, Tovey M, Tucker M, White PJ, Young SD, Zhao FJ (2010) Selenium biofortification of high-yielding winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by liquid or granular Se fertilisation. Plant Soil (in press)
Buchner P, Stuiver CEE, Westerman S, Wirtz M, Hell R, Hawkesford MJ, De Kok LJ (2004) Regulation of sulfate uptake and expression of sulfate transporter genes in Brassica oleracea as affected by atmospheric H2S and pedospheric sulfate nutrition. Plant Physiol 136:3396–3408
Dhillon SK, Dhillon KS (2000) Selenium adsorption in soils as influenced by different anions. J Plant Nutr Soil Sc 163:577–582
Dowdle PR, Oremland RS (1998) Microbial oxidation of elemental selenium in soil slurries and bacterial cultures. Environ Sci Technol 32:3749–3755
Fan MS, Zhao FJ, Poulton PR, McGrath SP (2008) Historical changes in the concentrations of selenium in soil and wheat grain from the Broadbalk experiment over the last 160 years. Sci Total Environ 389:532–538
Food Standards Agency (2009) Measurement of the concentrations of metals and other elements from the 2006 UK total diet study In Food Surveillance Information Sheet 09/09. http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fsis0109metals.pdf
Gissel-Nielsen G, Gupta UC, Lamand M, Westermarck T (1984) Selenium in soils and plants and its importance in livestock and human-nutrition. Adv Agron 37:397–460
Hartikainen H (2005) Biogeochemistry of selenium and its impact on food chain quality and human health. J Trace Elem Med Biol 18:309–318
Hawkesford MJ, Zhao FJ (2007) Strategies for increasing the selenium content of wheat. J Cereal Sci 46:282–292
Hopper JL, Parker DR (1999) Plant availability of selenite and selenate as influenced by the competing ions phosphate and sulfate. Plant Soil 210:199–207
Li HF, McGrath SP, Zhao FJ (2008) Selenium uptake, translocation and speciation in wheat supplied with selenate or selenite. New Phytol 178:92–102
Lindblow-Kull C, Kull FJ, Shrift A (1985) Single transporter for sulfate, selenate and selenite in Escherichia coli K-12. J Bacteriol 163:1267–1269
McGrath SP, Cunliffe CH (1985) A simplified method for the extraction of the metals, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Cr, Co, and Mn from soils and sewage sludges. J Sci Food Agric 36:794–798
Neal RH, Sposito G (1989) Selenate adsorption on alluvial soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 53:70–74
Olsen SR, Cole CV, Watanabe FS, Dean LA (1954) Estimation of available phosphorous in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate. Ed. USDo Agriculture, Washington
Rayman MP (2000) The importance of selenium to human health. Lancet 356:233–241
Smith FW, Hawkesford MJ, Ealing PM, Clarkson DT, VandenBerg PJ, Belcher AR, Warrilow GS (1997) Regulation of expression of a cDNA from barley roots encoding a high affinity sulphate transporter. Plant J 12:875–884
Sors TG, Ellis DR, Salt DE (2005) Selenium uptake, translocation, assimilation and metabolic fate in plants. Photosynth Res 86:373–389
Stroud JL, McGrath SP, Zhao FJ (2009) Selenium speciation in soil extracts using LC-ICP-MS. Int J Environ Anal Chem (in press)
Stroud JL, Broadley M, Foot I, F-T SJ, Hart DJ, Hurst R, Knott P, Norman K, Mowat H, Scott P, Tucker M, White PJ, McGrath SP, Zhao FJ (2010) Soil factors affecting selenium concentration in wheat grain and the fate and speciation of Se fertilisers applied to soil. Plant Soil (in press)
Terry N, Zayed AM, de Souza MP, Tarun AS (2000) Selenium in higher plants. Ann Rev Plant Physiol 51:401–432
White PJ, Bowen HC, Parmaguru P, Fritz M, Spracklen WP, Spiby RE, Meacham MC, Mead A, Harriman M, Trueman LJ, Smith BM, Thomas B, Broadley MR (2004) Interactions between selenium and sulphur nutrition in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Exp Bot 55:1927–1937
Zehr JP, Oremland RS (1987) Reduction of selenate to selenide by sulfate-respiring bacteria—experiments with cell-suspensions and estuarine sediments. Appl Environ Microbiol 53:1365–1369
Zhao F, McGrath SP (1994) Extractable sulfate and organic sulfur in soils and their availability to plants. Plant Soil 164:243–250
Zhao FJ, Hawkesford MJ, McGrath SP (1999) Sulphur assimilation and effects on yield and quality of wheat. J Cereal Sci 30:1–17
Acknowledgements
Rothamsted Research is an institute of the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. This project was sponsored by Defra through the Sustainable Arable LINK Programme (LK0974 grant). We thank Colin Gray and Sarah Dunham and for their assistance collecting and analysing samples.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Peter Christie.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stroud, J.L., Li, H.F., Lopez-Bellido, F.J. et al. Impact of sulphur fertilisation on crop response to selenium fertilisation. Plant Soil 332, 31–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0230-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0230-8