Abstract
The extensive use of nitrogen (N) in agriculture has caused negative impacts on the environment and costs. In this context, two pot experiments were performed under different N levels and harvested at different vegetative stages to assess two popcorn inbred lines (P2 and L80) and their hybrid (F1 = P2 × L80) for the N use, uptake and utilization efficiency (with the inclusion and exclusion of root N content); to find the contrasting N levels and vegetative stages that effect nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and to understand the relationship between the traits related to NUE. The hybrid and P2 were confirmed better than L80 for all the studied traits. NUE is mainly affected by the shoot dry weight, uptake and utilization efficiency. Extremely low and high N levels were found to be more discriminating for N use and dry weight, respectively. At the V6 (six fully expanded leaf) stage, root N content (RNC) should be considered; in contrast, at the VT (tasseling stage) stage, RNC should not be considered for the uptake and utilization efficiency. The genetic parameter performance for N use, uptake, shoot dry weight and N content could favor the achievement of the genetic gain in advanced segregating generations.
Highlights
Among the varieties belonging to Zea mays L., popcorn (Zea mays L. var. everta) occupies a prominent position due to containing 583 Kcal/100 g of energy intake and 49% saturated fats, 45% carbohydrates and 7% proteins, while the average price charged by the bag is three times higher than common corn [1,2]
Hybrid revealed an increase of 29.35% and 18.67% for the shoot dry weight (SDW) and total dry weight (TDW), in contrast, L80 showed an insignificant increase from N10% to N100% (Table 2)
Measuring nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) based on dry weight is mainly affected by shoot dry weight, uptake and utilization efficiency
Summary
Among the varieties belonging to Zea mays L., popcorn (Zea mays L. var. everta) occupies a prominent position due to containing 583 Kcal/100 g of energy intake and 49% saturated fats, 45% carbohydrates and 7% proteins, while the average price charged by the bag is three times higher than common corn [1,2]. The enhancing in the crop yield was because of the plant breeding techniques and extensive use of fertilizers. Among these fertilizers, nitrogen (N) is a major factor in agricultural production [4,5]. Nitrogen is important for life on the planet, and it is the most essential nutrient for obtaining high agricultural production. Nitrogen fertilizers applied in agriculture are not used efficiently by high-yield crops, such as wheat, maize and rice, in which only 33% of the applied N is used by the plant [6]. The use of N leads to the release of nitrous oxide with a global warming potential of 296 times greater than the CO2 molecule. The damaged caused by excess use of N in Europe was found to be 91–466 billion US dollars annually, reducing N use in agriculture is a big challenge
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