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Effects of potassium deficiency on the enzymatic changes in developing cotton fibers

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Abstract

Although effects of potassium (K) on cotton growth have been explored extensively, the effects of K deficiency on the physiological changes closely related to cotton fiber development are lacking. Thus, a 2-year field experiment was conducted with two cotton cultivars (Simian 3 and Siza 3) under 0 kg K2O ha−1 (K deficiency) and 300 kg K2O ha−1 (K sufficiency). The results showed that tonoplast adenosine triphosphatase (V-ATPase), pyrophosphatase (PPase), plasma membrane H+-ATPase (PM H+-ATPase), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), sucrose synthesis (SuSy) and vacuolar invertase (V-INV) were highly sensitive to K deficiency. The decreases in those enzymes resulted in low malate and soluble sugar contents, which together with low K concentration declined the driving force for fiber elongation, leading to significantly lower fiber length in the 0 kg K2O ha−1 treatment. The activity of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) was obviously increased by K deficiency before 20 days post anthesis (DPA), which could partly explain the acceleration of fiber cellulose synthesis and the increase in fiber strength in the 0 kg K2O ha−1 treatment in the early stage. However, SPS activity was decreased by K deficiency after 20 DPA and SuSy activity was reduced by K deficiency at any sampling date, resulting in low fiber strength in the end. Compared with Simian 3, the enzymes V-ATPase, PPase, PM H+-ATPase, PEPC and SuSy during fiber elongation stage were more sensitive to K deficiency in Siza 3, and the enzymes SuSy and SPS during fiber-thickening stage were more sensitive to K deficiency in Siza 3, which were the important reasons causing greater decreases in final fiber length and final fiber strength for Siza 3 than Simian 3 under K deficiency.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31630051, 31371583, 31401327), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201503136), China Agriculture Research System (CARS-18-14) and Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production (JCIC-MCP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang Road 1, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Hu, Jiashuo Yang, Shanshan Wang, Binglin Chen & Zhiguo Zhou

  2. Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia, Tifton, 31794, USA

    Wei Hu

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  1. Wei Hu
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  2. Jiashuo Yang
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Correspondence to Zhiguo Zhou.

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Communicated by LA Kleczkowski.

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Hu, W., Yang, J., Wang, S. et al. Effects of potassium deficiency on the enzymatic changes in developing cotton fibers. Acta Physiol Plant 40, 98 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-018-2674-z

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