Abstract
Aims
Due to their low nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE) oilseed rape (OSR) crops require large quantities of nitrogen (N) fertilizer to achieve acceptable economic yields.
Methods
To dissect the underlying mechanisms of oilseed NUtE, we investigated the relationships between NUtE, N uptake, N remobilization and leaf senescence by growing three N-efficient (genotypes with high NUtE at deficient N supplies) and three N-inefficient (ones with low NUtE at deficient N supplies) genotypes in pot experiments.
Results
These genotypes showed similar plant N uptake before flowering and similar post-anthesis N remobilization from leaf and stem, but after flowering N-efficient genotypes exhibited higher root N uptake than N-inefficient genotypes. Besides, the pod biomass and leaf N concentration of N-efficient genotypes were higher than those of N-inefficient genotypes at 50 days after flowering, and we observed delayed leaf senescence in N-efficient genotypes. Correspondingly, gene transcripts involved in photosynthesis and carbon metabolism were abundant in green mature leaves of N-efficient genotype, while the expression of genes involved in ubiquitin mediated proteolysis pathway were more abundant in N-inefficient mature leaves.
Conclusions
The stay-green phenotype of the N-efficient OSR after flowering provides sufficient photosynthate for root N uptake activity and pod development, and in turn, the prolonged post-anthesis N uptake provides more N to pods, leading to less leaf N remobilization requirement. This work has identified traits important for breeding OSR cultivars with improved NUtE.
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Abbreviations
- NUtE:
-
Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency
- OSR:
-
oilseed rape
- NUpE:
-
N uptake efficiency
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0200907), grants from the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201503124), grants from Special S&T Projects of Qinghai Province (2019-NK-A11) and the Innovative Research Team Plan of the Agriculture Ministry. We thank Marco Fioratti Junod for soil nutrient analysis and Dr Yi Chen for using nitrate sensors at JIC and we thank CSC (China Scholarship Council) for the one-year’ financial support at JIC.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Huiying He, Yuyu Xie, Anyu Zhao, Wencong Hu and Xiao Guo. Xiaoming Wu and Biyun Chen provided the materials. Hui Tian, Anthony J Miller, and Yajun Gao designed the experiment. Huiying He and Rong Zhang analyzed the data. Huiying He wrote this manuscript. Hui Tian, Anthony J Miller, and Yajun Gao revised this manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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He, H., Xie, Y., Zhao, A. et al. Genotypic variation in nitrogen utilization efficiency in oilseed rape is related to the coordination of leaf senescence and root N uptake during reproductive stage. Plant Soil 463, 291–306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04838-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04838-8