Biochar Administration to San Marzano Tomato Plants Cultivated Under Low-Input Farming Increases Growth, Fruit Yield, and Affects Gene Expression.

Maria Tartaglia,Mauro Marra,Mariapina Rocco,Andrea Scaloni,Simona Arena

doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.01281

Abstract

Biochar is a rich-carbon charcoal obtained by pyrolysis of biomasses, which was used since antiquity as soil amendant. Its storage in soils was demonstrated contributing to abate the effects of climate changes by sequestering carbon, also providing bioenergy, and improving soil characteristics and crop yields. Despite interest in this amendant, there is still poor information on its effects on soil fertility and plant growth. Considerable variation in the plant response has been reported, depending on biomass source, pyrolysis conditions, crop species, and cultivation practices. Due to these conflicting evidences, this work was aimed at studying the effects of biochar from pyrolyzed wood at 550°C, containing 81.1% carbon and 0.91% nitrogen, on growth and yield of tomato plants experiencing low-input farming conditions. San Marzano ecotype from Southern Italy was investigated, due to its renowned quality and adaptability to sustainable farming practices. Biochar administration improved vegetative growth and berry yield, while affecting gene expression and protein repertoire in berries. Different enzymes of carbon metabolism and photosynthesis were over-represented, whereas various stress-responsive and defense proteins were down-represented. Molecular results are here discussed in relation to estimated agronomic parameters to provide a rationale justifying the growth-promoting effect of this soil amendant.

Highlights

While World’s food demand is raising as a result of the rapidly growing of population, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and global climate changes, due to anthropogenic activities, greatly impact on agriculture, reducing crop yields, and decreasing the availability and the quality of soils in terms of water and nutrient content or heavy metal contamination (Lafferty, 2009; Auffhammer et al, 2012)
Differential proteomic characterization of tomato fruits at final maturation stage from San Marzano plants grown in soil amended with 5% biochar and control soil was achieved by 2-DE analysis of corresponding proteins resolved in the pI range 4–7 and the mass range 10–150 kDa, followed by gel staining with colloidal Coomassie blue
Our result demonstrate that biochar treatment of San Marzano plants experiencing low-input farming conditions determined a significant reduction of antioxidant enzymes, which may suggest the occurrence of other compensative mechanisms to face the augmented levels of reactive oxigen species (ROS) generally observed during fruit ripening

Summary

Introduction

While World’s food demand is raising as a result of the rapidly growing of population, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and global climate changes, due to anthropogenic activities, greatly impact on agriculture, reducing crop yields, and decreasing the availability and the quality of soils in terms of water and nutrient content or heavy metal contamination (Lafferty, 2009; Auffhammer et al, 2012). The addition of amendants rich in organic carbon has been proposed as a sustainable remediation to improve soil fertility and increase crop productivity (Marris, 2006; Lehmann, 2007a). This practice provides a mean to permanently sequester carbon, thereby reducing CO2. The renewed attention to sustainable practices in agriculture prompted extensive use of biochar to increase the fertility of soils and to improve the productivity of crop plants (Biederman and Stanley Harpole, 2013; Laghari et al, 2016). A reduction of the severity of infection has been reported for some fungine foliar diseases, such as powdery mildew, anthracnose, or gray mold (Elad et al, 2011; Harel et al, 2012; Mehari et al, 2015), and for nematode root infections (Huang et al, 2015), whereas inconsistent or negative effects have been observed in other root-pathogen interactions (Elmer and Pignatello, 2011; Akhter et al, 2015; Shoaf et al, 2016) or foliar diseases (Copley et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion