Growth and Physiological Response to Nitrogen Deficiency and Re-supply in Leaf-vegetable Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam)

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient limiting plant growth and quality of leaf-vegetable sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas Lam). The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of N deficiency and re-supply on growth, physiology, and amino acids in sweetpotato. Two leaf-vegetable sweetpotato cultivars, Pushu 53 and Tainong 71, were subjected to three treatments in hydro-culture: 1) N sufficiency, 2) N deficiency, and 3) N deficiency and subsequently with N re-supply. Compared with N sufficiency, N deficiency caused a decrease in vine growth, carotenoid and chlorophyll content (Chlt), root viability, photosynthesis, and nitrate reductase (NR) activity in both cultivars, but to a great extent in Tainong 71. Whereas N deficiency increased root growth and glutamine synthetase (GS) activity in both cultivars, and the increase in ‘Tainong 71’ was more obvious. Re-supply of N recovered the vine growth, root viability, Chlt, photosynthesis, NR, and GS activity, to a greater extent for ‘Pushu 53’ than for ‘Tainong 71’. N deficiency significantly decreased essential amino acids, including lysine, phenylalanince, isoleucine, tryptophane, leucine, and valine contents and nonessential amino acids, consisting of glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine, argnine, and proline content in both cultivars. These results indicated that the light leaf color leafy sweetpotato ‘Tainong 71’ is sensitive to the N availability and the dark green leaf color ‘Pushu 53’ is more tolerant to low N, which appear to reflect the differential response of two cultivars to their different adaptability to N availability.