Abstract
Potassium deficiency is one of the major issues affecting crop production around the globe. Giving the high cost of potassium fertilizers and environmental concerns related to inappropriate fertilization practices, developing more potassium use efficient (KUE) varieties is critical for sustainable food production in agricultural systems. In this study, we analysed the impact of potassium availability on agronomical attributes of thirty barley genotypes grown at four different levels of potassium (0.002 mM, 0.02 mM, 2 mM, 20 mM) under glasshouse conditions. The results showed that the availability of potassium in the soil had a major effect on yield components i.e., spike number, grain number and grain weight. Furthermore, grain weight showed a strong correlation with grain number and spike number at all levels of potassium supply. Although an increase in potassium supply led to an increase in plant height in all genotypes, the correlation with grain weight was very weak at all levels. Potassium supplementation caused an increase in shoot dry weight, which also showed a weak correlation with grain weight at the 0.002 mM potassium supply level. The genotypes Gebeina, Skiff, YF374, Flagship and YF374 were highly efficient in performing at suboptimal K supply levels and, thus, can be recommended to be grown in K-impoverished soils. We also suggest that grain and spike numbers could be used as proxies for KUE studies, to construct DH lines and identify QTL to improve low potassium tolerance and KUE in barley.
Highlights
IntroductionPotassium (K) is an essential macronutrient that plays an important role in the biochemical and biophysical processes of the plant, both at the cellular and whole-plant levels [1,2,3]
K significantly contributes to enzyme activation, metabolism, cell development, maintenance of membrane electric potential, protein synthesis, ionic homeostasis, cytosolic pH regulation, solute transport and cell turgor, in the rapidly growing cells [4,5,6]
The results showed that the traits grain number and spike number showed a strong correlation with grain yield and can be used as proxy in genetic programs
Summary
Potassium (K) is an essential macronutrient that plays an important role in the biochemical and biophysical processes of the plant, both at the cellular and whole-plant levels [1,2,3]. K significantly contributes to enzyme activation, metabolism, cell development, maintenance of membrane electric potential, protein synthesis, ionic homeostasis, cytosolic pH regulation, solute transport and cell turgor, in the rapidly growing cells [4,5,6]. The availability of K affects the overall growth and development in plants and typically it can constitute up to almost 2–10 of the total plant dry matter [7]. The continuous supply of K is required by plants to maintain higher growth and development [8,9]. Most of the agricultural areas around the globe are reportedly deficient in available K, including
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