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Genetic diversity for nitrogen use efficiency in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) cultivars using the Ingestad model on hydroponics

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Abstract

Spinach is a leafy vegetable that requires a high N fertilization to have a satisfactory yield and quality, in part because it has poor nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Therefore, there is a need to breed for cultivars with an excellent NUE. To this end the genetic diversity for NUE-related traits was studied in a diverse set of commercial cultivars. This set was evaluated in a hydroponic system using the Ingestad model; the system was set at a relative growth rate of 0.14 and 0.18 g g−1 day−1 (low and high N, respectively). Experiments were performed at low and high plant density. Traits monitored for single plants included fresh and dry weight, leaf area, specific leaf area, dry weight ratio between root and shoot, and chlorophyll content. The high density experiment showed more genotypic variation for the observed traits than the low density one. Biomass production was considerably lower at low than at high N. Path analysis revealed that leaf area had the highest direct effect on NUE, while specific leaf area was an important trait determining variation in NUE at low N. Slow and fast growing genotypes were shown to use different strategies to utilize N, and these strategies are expressed differently at high and low N availability. This indicates that improving spinach for NUE is feasible using the analysed genotypes as source material, and different strategies can be targeted for adaptation of spinach cultivars to low N conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Geurt Versteeg and Maarten Peters from Wageningen UR Unifarm for their contribution to the technical work in the hydroponic experiments. Additionally, we want to acknowledge the contribution of Pierre-Emmanuel Algoet for the establishment of spinach conditions for the experiment. This research was financially supported by the Groene Veredeling program from the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs and the companies Enza Seeds, Vitalis Organic Seeds, Pop Vriend, Nunhems and Rijk Zwaan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O Box: 386, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Rafael Chan-Navarrete, Asako Kawai, Oene Dolstra, Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren & C. Gerard van der Linden

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  1. Rafael Chan-Navarrete
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  2. Asako Kawai
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  3. Oene Dolstra
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  4. Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren
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  5. C. Gerard van der Linden
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Correspondence to C. Gerard van der Linden.

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Chan-Navarrete, R., Kawai, A., Dolstra, O. et al. Genetic diversity for nitrogen use efficiency in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) cultivars using the Ingestad model on hydroponics. Euphytica 199, 155–166 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-014-1186-1

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