The difference between breeding for nutrient use efficiency and for nutrient stress tolerance

Ciro Maia,Júlio César Dovale,Roberto Fritsche-Neto,Paulo Cezar Cavatte,Glauco Vieira Miranda

doi:10.1590/s1984-70332011000300010

Ciro Maia, Júlio César Dovale + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-70332011000300010

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Abstract

This study aimed to verify the relationship between breeding for tolerance to low levels of soil nutrients and for nutrient use efficiency in tropical maize. Fifteen inbred lines were evaluated in two greenhouse experiments under contrasting levels of N and P. The relationship between nutritional efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress was estimated by the Spearman ranking correlation between the genotypes for the traits related to N and P use efficiency and phenotypic plasticity indices. The lack of relationship between the traits, in magnitude as well as significance, indicates that these characters are controlled by different gene groups. Consequently, simultaneous selection for both nutrient use efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress is possible, if the mechanisms that confer efficiency and tolerance are not competitive.

Highlights

Some alternatives to meet the increasing global food demand consist in the possibility of planting between the main growing seasons, as done with some agricultural species, yields are often not very satisfactory; the increase of yields, which in some crops seems to have reached maximum levels; and cropland expansion, an alternative that ensures greater production of food and agro-industrial raw materials, especially in emerging and developing countries
When the restricted availability of water and soil nutrients is limiting for plant growth and development, the metabolism, mass and surface of several plant organs is affected, reducing crop yields
Different breeding programs and lines of research have been established, focused on the improvement of plants grown under abiotic stress

Summary

Introduction

Some alternatives to meet the increasing global food demand consist in the possibility of planting between the main growing seasons, as done with some agricultural species, yields are often not very satisfactory; the increase of yields, which in some crops seems to have reached maximum levels; and cropland expansion, an alternative that ensures greater production of food and agro-industrial raw materials, especially in emerging and developing countries. This can open the possibility of growing a significant portion of agricultural crops in marginal, mostly little fertile areas (Giaveno et al 2007). According to Larcher (2006), induced changes and responses at all functional levels of the organism may be reversible at first, but if extended over the whole plant cycle they become irreversible and reduce the plant yield

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