Abstract
Phosphorous is one of the major limiting factors determining plant growth. Current agricultural practices mainly rely on the use of chemical fertilizers posing threat to the ecosystem. In this study, the application of an Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE) in phosphorous (P)-limited conditions improved the fresh and dry weight of shoots and roots of Zea mays. ANE-treated Z. mays grown under P-limited conditions showed a higher P content than the control. ANE activated simultaneous responses, at multiple levels, in Z. mays grown under P-limited conditions as seen from the regulation of gene expression at the whole-plant level to specific biochemical responses on a subcellular level. ANE-supplemented Z. mays grown under P-limited conditions also showed reduced electrolyte leakage and lipid peroxidation by an improved membrane stability. ANE treatment reduced P-limitation-induced oxidative damage in Z. mays by reducing H2O2 and accumulation. Furthermore, ANE also induced the accumulation of the total contents of soluble sugars, amino acids, phenolics, and flavonoids. Gene expression analysis suggested that ANE differentially modulated the expression of P-starvation responsive genes involved in metabolic, signal transduction, and developmental pathways in Z. mays. ANE also modulated the expression of genes involved in sugar, lipid, and secondary metabolism. Thus, this study illustrated the role of ANE in improving the productivity of Z. mays, an important crop, in P-limited conditions. Furthermore, it sets the framework to increase agricultural productivity in nutrient deficient soils using a sustainable, eco-friendly strategy.
Highlights
Phosphorous (P) is an important macronutrient for plants and constitutes about 0.2% of dry weight (DW) (Schachtman et al, 2002)
Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE)-supplemented Z. mays plants grown under P-limited conditions showed higher fresh and DWs of shoots and roots, but not their percentage water content (PWC), than the control (Figure 2)
The dry biomass of the shoot and root of ANE-supplemented Z. mays grown under P-limited conditions was found to be 4.33 and 1.29 times, respectively, higher than the plants grown in P-limited conditions alone (Figures 2B,E)
Summary
Phosphorous (P) is an important macronutrient for plants and constitutes about 0.2% of dry weight (DW) (Schachtman et al, 2002). Phosphorous is a key constituent of cellular biomolecules, such as ATP, NADP, nucleic acids, phospholipids, sugar phosphates, and enzymes (Hernández and MunnéBosch, 2015; Achary et al, 2017). It plays an important role in nucleic acid and protein synthesis, membrane integrity, photosynthesis, respiration, energy metabolism, hormone regulation, stress tolerance, and disease resistance (Sun et al, 2018). Chemical fertilizers are used to enhance the availability of P to plants from the soil (Veneklaas et al, 2012; Heuer et al, 2017). There is a need to develop a more sustainable strategy to enhance P-use efficiency in agricultural systems
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