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Grafting improves growth and nitrogen-use efficiency by enhancing NO3− uptake, photosynthesis, and gene expression of nitrate transporters and nitrogen metabolizing enzymes in watermelon under reduced nitrogen application

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Abstract

Background

Excessive application of N fertilizer can inhibit plant growth, reduce N-use efficiency (NUE) and lead to production reduction. Watermelon is an important crop that often restricted by inappropriate N supply. The study aims to test whether grafting with bottle gourd rootstock can improve the NUE and growth performance of watermelon under reduced nitrate application and to clarify the underlying mechanism.

Methods

Grafted (self-grafted and rootstock-grafted watermelon) and ungrafted (watermelon and bottle gourd) seedlings were treated separately with 9 mM (control) and 4 mM (reduced-nitrate) N concentrations for 18 days under hydroponic conditions.

Results

The growth and NUE of bottle gourd rootstock-grafted watermelon seedlings increased under reduced-nitrate, while decreased slightly in self-grafted seedlings compared with the control. Rootstock-grafted plants had higher root morphological traits, NO3− accumulation, NR and GS activities, photosynthesis, and NUE traits than self-grafted plants under reduced-nitrate. Reduced-nitrate treatment significantly up-regulated the expression of nitrate transporter genes NRT1.5 and NRT2.1 and N metabolizing enzyme genes NR2, NR3, NiR, GS1 and GS2 in rootstock-grafted plants.

Conclusion

Under reduced-nitrate treatment, grafted watermelon can make better use of the developed rootstock roots to increase the NO3− absorption and transportation to the shoot, so as to enhance the N metabolism potential and photosynthetic capacity of scions, and finally improve plant growth and NUE. The enhanced NO3− uptake and utilization of rootstock-grafted plants were regulated at the transcriptional level. Grafting with the bottle gourd rootstock may be beneficial to the efficient production of watermelon and economic application of N fertilizer.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

GOGAT:

Glutamate synthase

GS:

Glutamine synthetase

N:

Nitrogen

NA:

N accumulation

NiR:

Nitrite reductase

NR:

Nitrate reductase

NRTs:

Nitrate transporters

NUE:

N-use efficiency

NUpE:

N uptake efficiency

NUtE:

N utilization efficiency

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Research Program of Natural Science in Shaanxi Province (2021JQ-142), the Shaanxi Innovative Research Team (2021TD-34), Shaanxi Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project (NYKJ-2021-YL(XN)04), and Xi'an Science and Technology Plan (21NYYF0031).

Funding

This work was supported by the Basic Research Program of Natural Science in Shaanxi Province (2021JQ-142), the Shaanxi Innovative Research Team (2021TD-34), Shaanxi Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project (NYKJ-2021-YL(XN)04), and Xi'an Science and Technology Plan (21NYYF0031).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Horticulture, Key Laboratory of Protected Horticultural Engineering in Northwest, Ministry of Agriculture, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, Yangling, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoling Chen, Peijin Guo, Zhiyu Wang, Jiayi Liang, Guohu Li, Wenwen He & Ai Zhen

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  1. Xiaoling Chen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Xiaoling Chen, Peijin Guo, Zhiyu Wang and Wenwen He. Jiayi Liang and Guohu Li analyzed the data. Xiaoling Chen wrote this manuscript. Ai zhen designed the experiment and revised this manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ai Zhen.

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Chen, X., Guo, P., Wang, Z. et al. Grafting improves growth and nitrogen-use efficiency by enhancing NO3− uptake, photosynthesis, and gene expression of nitrate transporters and nitrogen metabolizing enzymes in watermelon under reduced nitrogen application. Plant Soil 480, 305–327 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05583-2

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