Exogenous diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate ameliorates low temperature stress by improving nitrogen metabolism in maize seedlings

Abstract

Spring maize sowing occurs during a period of low temperature (LT) in Northeast China, and the LT suppresses nitrogen (N) metabolism and photosynthesis, further reducing dry matter accumulation. Diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate (DA-6) improves N metabolism; hence, we studied the effects of DA-6 on maize seedlings under LT conditions. The shoot and root fresh weight and dry weight decreased by 17.70%~20.82% in the LT treatment, and decreased by 5.81%~13.57% in the LT + DA-6 treatment on the 7th day, respectively. Exogenous DA-6 suppressed the increases in ammonium (NH4+) content and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity, and suppressed the decreases in nitrate (NO3–) and nitrite (NO2–) contents, and activities of nitrate reductase (NR), nitrite reductase (NiR), glutamine synthetase (GS), glutamate synthase (GOGAT) and transaminase activities. NiR activity was most affected by DA-6 under LT conditions. Additionally, exogenous DA-6 suppressed the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) decrease, and the suppressed the increases of superoxide anion radical (O2·−) generation rate and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content. Taken together, our results suggest that exogenous DA-6 mitigated the repressive effects of LT on N metabolism by improving photosynthesis and modulating oxygen metabolism, and subsequently enhanced the LT tolerance of maize seedlings.