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More nitrogen partition in structural proteins and decreased photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency of Pinus massoniana under in situ polluted stress

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Abstract

Masson pine (Pinus massoniana L.) trees in the Pearl River Delta have shown growth decline since late 1980s, particularly those around industrially polluted regions. As nitrogen is an important nutritional element composing functional proteins, structural proteins and photosynthetic machinery, investigation on nitrogen allocation is helpful to understand nutrient alteration and its regulation mechanism in response to pollution stress. Current year (C) and 1-year old needles (C + 1) of five mature trees were sampled in industrially polluted site and unpolluted natural reserve for bioassay. Needles of declining trees had significantly higher leaf nitrogen per unit area (NL) but lower photosynthetic capacity (P max), which resulted in lower photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) than those of healthy trees. Nitrogen fraction to the photosynthetic apparatus in the C and C + 1 needles at polluted site was 27 and 22%, significantly lower than the corresponding healthy needles (48 and 32%). The content of structural proteins was positively correlated with NL in C and C + 1 needles. Moreover, the C and C + 1 needles of declining trees had about 1.8 times structural protein as those of healthy trees, suggesting that more nitrogen allocation to structural protein are needed for stronger structural defenses under polluted stress. Decreases in PNUE of declining pine trees could be partially explained by increases in structural protein nitrogen.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Professor Guojiang Wu for technical help in nitrogen partition analysis, Professor Zhifang Lin and Dr. Nan Liu, and two anonymous reviewers for substantial comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Jiong Li for field assistance. This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31070409; No. 30570349) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 8151065005000016).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Lan-Lan Guan & Da-Zhi Wen

  2. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lan-Lan Guan

  3. Pearl River Delta Research Centre of Environmental Pollution and Control, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Da-Zhi Wen

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  1. Lan-Lan Guan
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Correspondence to Da-Zhi Wen.

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Guan, LL., Wen, DZ. More nitrogen partition in structural proteins and decreased photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency of Pinus massoniana under in situ polluted stress. J Plant Res 124, 663–673 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-011-0405-2

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