Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 94-103. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20192847

Special Issue: Corn Soil fertilizer Biotechnology

• Tillage & Cultivation· Physiology & Biochemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Soil Acidification on Yield,Nitrogen Metabolism, and Related Gene Expression of Maize

ZHANG Zongxiang, HUANG Zhengrong, WU Xuefan, LIU Nannan, LI Xiaoxiao , DONG Zhaorong, SONG He   

  1. Key Laboratory of Wheat Biology and Genetic Improvement on South Yellow & Huai River Valley, MOA,P.R.China,College of Agronomy,Anhui Agricultural University,Hefei 230036,China
  • Received:2022-03-09 Published:2022-06-30
  • Contact: LI Xiaoxiao

Abstract:

Yield and nitrogen accumulation of maize will decline under soil acidification,but the physiological mechanism is not clear.Field experiment was conducted with four different soil acidity gradients:nautral acid(pH=7,CK),weak acid(pH=6,T1),medium acid(pH=5,T2)and strong acid(pH=4,T3),comparing yield,nitrogen accumulation,grain protein content,nitrogen metabolism-related enzyme activities,gene expression,nitrate nitrogen,ammonium nitrogen,soluble protein,free amino acid content in leaf and stem of maize.The results showed that compared with CK,the yield of T1,T2 and T3 treatments declined by 4.2%,30.7% and 52.3%,respectively.Grain number per spike decreased by 1.8%,28.1% and 42.8%;grain protein content showed a downward trend with T3 treatment significantly reduced by 14.5%.At the big flare stage,with the increase of soil acidity,nitrogen accumulation in leaves showed a downward trend,it was significantly decreased in T2 and T3 treatment by 28.1% and 56.2%,respectively.In stem,the nitrogen accumulation increased firstly and then decreased.Compared with CK,T1 treatment was significantly increased by 33.1%,and T3 treatment significantly decreased by 65.4%.At the big flare stage, the activities of nitrate reductase, glutamate dehydrogenase and glutamate synthase in leaf and stem under T3 treatment were significantly higher than those in CK, while the activities of glutamine synthase in leaf were significantly decreased. The amino acids in stem decreased first and then increased.With the increase of soil acidity,the expressions of ZmGln2 and ZmFd-GOGAT were up-regulated,which promoted the assimilation of NH 4 + released by photorespiration and NH 4 + produced by NO 3 - reduction;the down-regulated expression of ZmGln1.2-ZmGln1.4, ZmNADH-GOGAT2 in leaf and ZmNADH-GOGAT1 in stem decreased the assimilation of NH 4 + released by catabolism.By up-regulating or down-regulating the expression of relevant genes,maize could promote the production of more free amino acids and soluble proteins during nitrogen metabolism to resist acidification stress,but also reduced the nitrogen accumulation,resulting in lower yield and grain protein content.

Key words: Maize, Soil acidification, Yield, Nitrogen metabolism, Transcriptome

Cite this article

ZHANG Zongxiang, HUANG Zhengrong, WU Xuefan, LIU Nannan, LI Xiaoxiao, DONG Zhaorong, SONG He. Effects of Soil Acidification on Yield,Nitrogen Metabolism, and Related Gene Expression of Maize[J]. Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica, 2022, 37(3): 94-103. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20192847.

share this article