A quantitative genetics approach to nitrogen use efficiency in sugarcane

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Whan ◽  
Nicole Robinson ◽  
Prakash Lakshmanan ◽  
Susanne Schmidt ◽  
Karen Aitken

The economic and environmental consequences of inefficient use of nitrogen (N) fertiliser in agricultural crops is of concern worldwide, so new crop varieties with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) are sought. Here, we report the first study of mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) for nitrogen physiology traits in sugarcane. QTL analysis was undertaken for each parent of a segregating bi-parental sugarcane mapping population. We grew 168 progeny under limiting (0.2 mM NH4NO3) and non-limiting (5.0 mM NH4NO3) N supplies in two glasshouse experiments. Significant marker-trait associations (MTA) were detected in each treatment for shoot dry weight, root dry weight, total shoot N, shoot internal NUE (iNUE; measured as units shoot dry weight per unit N), leaf protein content and glutamine synthetase (GS) activity. MTA for GS activity did not co-locate with other traits except leaf protein content, indicating that variation in GS activity is not linked to plant size or iNUE during early growth. Under high N, there were no significant MTA for iNUE among markers from the male parent, Q165, an Australian commercial cultivar, but six MTA were found for markers inherited from the female parent, IJ76–514, a Saccharum officinarum ancestral variety. The results indicate that variation for iNUE under high N may be lower in commercial varieties than unimproved genotypes. Further, four MTA were consistent with previous field-based research on sugar and biomass production. Our study provides initial evidence that QTL may be incorporated in sugarcane breeding programs targeting improved NUE.

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Wilda Lumban Tobing ◽  
Mariani Sembiring

<p>The expansion of oil palm plantations continues to increase so that it requires quality seed. Nurseries need to be done before moving to the field. The use of Azotobacter and cocoa fruit skin compost is one way to increase the  growth and nitrogen use efficiency in oil palm in main nursery. This research was aimed to know the growth and nitrogen use efficiency of palm oil in main nursery. This research was conducted on the research area of the Agricultural Agribusiness College of Agriculture Practices (STIPAP) Medan and the Laboratory of Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian (BPTP) of North Sumatra and the Agricultural Laboratory of the University of North Sumatera from February until Juli 2013. The method used was Randomized Group Design factorial with 3 replications and followed by Duncan test at α=5%. The first factor is Azotobacter including without giving Azotobacter (A0), 20 ml/polybag (A1) and 40 ml/polybag (A2). The second factor is cocoa fruit skin compost, which consists of 3 of them, namely without compost (K0), 125 g/polybag (K1), and 250 g/polybag (K2). The research parameters were plant dry weight (g), nitrogen uptake (mg) and N use efficiency (EPN). The results showed that the use of Azotobacter and cocoa fruit skin compost were able to significantly increasing dry weight of plant and N uptake of oil palm seeds and gave the highest EPN value of 12.93.  </p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8780
Author(s):  
Muhammad Muhaymin Mohd Zuki ◽  
Noraini Md. Jaafar ◽  
Siti Zaharah Sakimin ◽  
Mohd Khanif Yusop

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is commonly used to supply sufficient N for plant uptake, for which urea is one of the highly preferred synthetic N fertilizers due to its high N content. Unfortunately, N provided by urea is rapidly lost upon urea application to soils through ammonia volatilization, leaching, and denitrification. Thus, treatment of urea with urease inhibitor (N-(n-Butyl) Thiophosphoric Triamide (NBPT)) is among the solutions to slow down urea hydrolysis, therefore reducing loss of NH3 and saving N available for plant uptake and growth. A field study was carried out to evaluate the effects of NBPT-coated urea (NCU) at varying rates on growth, yield, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of maize in tropical soil. The experiment was conducted at Field 15, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, and maize (Zea mays var. Thai Super Sweet) was used as the test crop. The results showed that all maize grown in soils applied with urea coated with NBPT (NCU) (T2, T3, T4, and T5) had significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher chlorophyll content compared to the control (T0 and T1). The surface leaf area of maize grown in NCU-treated soils at 120 kg N h−1 (T3) was recorded as the highest. NCU at and 96 kg N ha−1 (T3 and T4) were relatively effective in increasing maize plant dry weight, yield, and N uptake. Improvement of NUE by 45% over urea was recorded in the treatment of NCU at 96 kg N ha−1. NBPT-coated urea (NCU) at 96 kg N ha−1 had potential to increase the growth, yield, nitrogen uptake, and NUE of maize by increasing the availability of N for plant growth and development.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann RESTREPO-DIAZ ◽  
Jorge BETANCOURT-OSORIO ◽  
Diego SANCHEZ-CANRO

Climate change has altered rainfall patterns causing waterlogging periods that often negatively affect the performance of horticultural crops in the Andean region in Colombia. An experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions using three-month-old tamarillo (Solanum betaceum Cav.) seedlings, which were grown under two levels of nitrogen (N) (10 and 150 mg N∙L H2O). At 28 days after transplanting (DAT), waterlogging treatments were established when well-nourished plants (150 mg N L-1 H2O) significantly showed a higher shoot length than poor-nourished plants (10 mg N L-1 H2O) (~20 cm vs. ~10 cm, respectively). Three different periods of waterlogging were performed between 35 and 37, 51 and 55, and 64 and 70 DAT by covering the holes in the plastic pots to ensure a constant water depth. Results showed that well-nourished plants without waterlogging treatments through the experiment’s stress showed a greater shoot length (30 cm), total plant dry weight (7.95 g), Fv/Fm ratio (0.62) and leaf chlorophyll content (37.51 SPAD units) than poor-nourished plants without stress condition (15 cm, 5.57 g, 0.5 and 12.69 SPAD units, respectively) at the end of the experiment. Overall, waterlogging reduced leaf area and nitrogen use efficiency (about 75% and 50%, respectively) in both N levels. However, periods of waterlogging enhanced dry matter partitioning to stems (around 30-35%) in both N levels. This study showed that tamarillo plants are susceptible to landscaping situations where periods of waterlogging can be expected regardless of their N nutritional status.


Author(s):  
Sabah Morsy

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) uptakes only 40 to 60% of the soil available nitrogen. Sulfur deficiencies depress both nitrate uptake and nitrate reductase activity resulting in low nitrogen use efficiency. Soil and foliar supplied sulfur in combinations with foliar nitrogen were used on three of the modern and commercially grown wheat cultivars. The experiment was conducted in two consecutive growing seasons; 2017 and 2018 in a high pH soil, 8.55. Our results indicated that 714 kg ha-1 of pre-planting sulfur (SS) and spraying twice with 6.66% urea and 2.2% micronized sulfur (S1FS1N1) during stages 13 & 41 on Zadok`s scale, increased grain yield, total protein content, straw yield and plant height by 31.58, 26.09, 18.37 and 7.9% respectively. The results indicated a significant and positive impact sulfur-nitrogen combinations when applied on top of pre-planting applied sulfur. However, foliar sprayed sulfur had a more substantial effect on all traits, compared to the pre-planting sulfur or the foliar sprayed N, suggesting interference effect of the alkaline soil with the amount of sulfur recovered from the soil. When N and S foliar were applied simultaneously, a more substantial increase in grain yield, plant height, straw yield and total protein content was observed, suggesting a synergistic effect between these two elements. We attributed the positive effect of S1FS1N1 on improving photosynthates translocation from the sources to sinks. In addition to improving nitrogen use efficiency while reducing the plant content of NO−3 by optimizing the S/N ratio and reducing sulfur deficiency. Based on our results, we concluded that the foliar application of micronized S has the potential to improve the overall performance of wheat plants. Thus, we recommend enriching nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers with sulfur for alkaline soils.


Heliyon ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. e05100
Author(s):  
Jose M. Leite ◽  
Pavithra S. Pitumpe Arachchige ◽  
Ignacio A. Ciampitti ◽  
Ganga M. Hettiarachchi ◽  
Leila Maurmann ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. P. McCaughey ◽  
R. G. Simons

There is a lack of information on the interaction of harvest management, grass species and N-fertilizer interaction on forage quality and nitrogen use efficiency of dryland grasses. In a 3-yr field trial, harvest management (2 cut, hay management vs. a 3–4 cut simulated pasture management system) and nitrogen fertilizer (0, 40, 80, 120, 160 kg N ha−1) were examined for their effects on protein yield (PY), protein content (PC), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), nitrogen recovery (NR) and soil test nitrate-nitrogen (STN) under crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum [L.] Gaertn.; CWG), meadow bromegrass (Bromus biebersteinii Roem & Schult.; MBR) and smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis L.; SBR) swards. Generally, grasses managed under a two-cut hay system had lower (P < 0.05) PC than grasses managed under a 3–4 cut simulated pasture system (and occasionally higher NR and NUE) but harvest management did not consistently affect PY. There were few consistent differences between grass species for PY, PC, NUE and NR with relative ranking and significance changing between site-years. Generally, MBR responded to N-fertilizer in a similar manner to previously studied dryland grasses such as CWG or SBR. N-fertilization increased PY and PC but did not consistently affect NUE, NR and STN. Key words: Protein yield, protein, nitrogen recovery, nitrogen use efficiency, hay, pasture


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