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Genetics and Breeding Related to Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop Plants

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A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2020) | Viewed by 15469

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andreas Stahl

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Guest Editor

Department of Plant Breeding, IFZ Research Centre for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Interests: nitrogen use efficiency (NUE); plant breeding; digital plant phenotyping; heterosis; genetic variation in root traits
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and is the plant nutrient for which the largest quantities of fertilizer applications are required in order to secure high crop productivity. However, nitrogen losses—either due to volatile losses in the atmosphere or due to nitrate leaching into waterways—raise concerns in an ecological and human health context. In light of the question of how a growing world population can match food demand without magnifying environmental impacts, concepts to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) through breeding are becoming a global megatrend in agricultural science. New breeding methods and an unprecedented increase in genetic, genomic and phenomic knowledge and tools provide novel opportunities to address this question.

In this Special Issue, authors are invited to share advances related to insights into nitrogen uptake, assimilation and remobilization in association with genetic variation and breeding in crops plants. We are open to contributions (research papers and reviews) spanning the identification of relevant genetic diversity, enhanced knowledge on inheritance of NUE-related traits and breeding strategies targeting NUE improvement. Approaches addressing technologies that allow a precise and reliable description of NUE-associated traits, helping researchers and breeders to identify outperforming genotypes, are also welcome. Experimental studies should preferentially be carried out under field conditions or in proven field-like simulation systems. Contributions of laboratory research can be considered if the relevance and link to field environments is given.

Dr. Andreas Stahl
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Genetic mapping
Gene identification
Advanced breeding approaches
New phenotyping technologies
Genotype x N and Genotype x N x Management interactions
Concepts of selection for improved NUE
Models of crop nitrogen metabolism
Novel concepts and reports related to N-fixation in major crops

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3346 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Epigenetic Variation at a Genomic Locus Affecting Biomass Accumulation under Low Nitrogen in Arabidopsis thaliana

by Markus Kuhlmann, Rhonda C. Meyer, Zhongtao Jia, Doreen Klose, Lisa-Marie Krieg, Nicolaus von Wirén and Thomas Altmann

Agronomy 2020, 10(5), 636; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10050636 - 01 May 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3062

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is a macronutrient determining crop yield. The application of N fertilisers can substantially increase the yield, but excess use also causes the nitrate pollution of water resources and increases production costs. Increasing N use efficiency (NUE) in crop plants is an important step to implement low-input agricultural systems. We used Arabidopsis thaliana as model system to investigate the natural genetic diversity in traits related to NUE. Natural variation was used to study adaptive growth patterns and changes in gene expression associated with limited nitrate availability. A genome-wide association study revealed an association of eight SNP markers on Chromosome 1 with shoot growth under limited N. The identified linkage disequilibrium (LD) interval includes the DNA sequences of three cysteine/histidine-rich C1 domain proteins in tandem orientation. These genes differ in promoter structure, methylation pattern and expression level among accessions, correlating with growth performance under N deficiency. Our results suggest the involvement of epigenetic regulation in the expression of NUE-related traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics and Breeding Related to Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop Plants)

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17 pages, 3593 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification of Wheat Cultivars for Low Nitrogen Tolerance Using Multivariable Screening Approaches

by Bhudeva S. Tyagi, John Foulkes, Gyanendra Singh, Sindhu Sareen, Pradeep Kumar, Martin R. Broadley, Vikas Gupta, Gopalareddy Krishnappa, Ashish Ojha, Jaswant S. Khokhar, Ian P. King and Gyanendra Pratap Singh

Agronomy 2020, 10(3), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10030417 - 19 Mar 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4035

Abstract

A set of thirty-six wheat cultivars were grown for two consecutive years under low and high nitrogen conditions. The interactions of cultivars with different environmental factors were shown to be highly significant for most of the studied traits, suggesting the presence of wider genetic variability which may be utilized for the genetic improvement of desired trait(s). Three cultivars, i.e., RAJ 4037, DBW 39 and GW 322, were selected based on three selection indices, i.e., tolerance index (TOL), stress susceptibility index (SSI), and yield stability index (YSI), while two cultivars, HD 2967 and MACS 6478, were selected based on all four selection indices which were common in both of the study years. According to Kendall’s concordance coefficient, the consistency of geometric mean productivity (GMP) was found to be highest (0.778), followed by YSI (0.556), SSI (0.472), and TOL (0.200). Due to the high consistency of GMP followed by YSI and SSI, the three selection indices could be utilized as a selection tool in the identification of high-yielding genotypes under low nitrogen conditions. The GMP and YSI selection indices had a positive and significant correlation with grain yield, whereas TOL and SSI exhibited a significant but negative correlation with grain yield under both high and low nitrogen conditions in both years. The common tolerant genotypes identified through different selection indices could be utilized as potential donors in active breeding programs to incorporate the low nitrogen tolerant genes to develop high-yielding wheat varieties for low nitrogen conditions. The study also helps in understanding the physiological basis of tolerance in high-yielding wheat genotypes under low nitrogen conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics and Breeding Related to Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop Plants)

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14 pages, 1765 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In-Field Observation of Root Growth and Nitrogen Uptake Efficiency of Winter Oilseed Rape

by Julien Louvieaux, Antoine Leclercq, Loïc Haelterman and Christian Hermans

Agronomy 2020, 10(1), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10010105 - 10 Jan 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3609

Abstract

Field trials were conducted with two nitrogen applications (0 or 240 kg N ha⁻¹) and three modern cultivars of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) previously selected from a root morphology screen at a young developmental stage. The purpose is to examine the relationship between root morphology and Nitrogen Uptake Efficiency (NUpE) and to test the predictiveness of some canopy optical indices for seed quality and yield. A tube-rhizotron system was used to incorporate below-ground root growth information. Practically, clear tubes of one meter in length were installed in soil at an angle of 45°. The root development was followed with a camera at key growth stages in autumn (leaf development) and spring (stem elongation and flowering). Autumn was a critical time window to observe the root development, and exploration in deeper horizons (36–48 cm) was faster without any fertilization treatment. Analysis of the rhizotron images was challenging and it was not possible to clearly discriminate between cultivars. Canopy reflectance and leaf optical indices were measured with proximal sensors. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was a positive indicator of biomass and seed yield while the Nitrogen Balance Index (NBI) was a positive indicator of above-ground biomass N concentration at flowering and seed N concentration at harvest. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics and Breeding Related to Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop Plants)

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17 pages, 810 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nitrogen Application Improved Photosynthetic Productivity, Chlorophyll Fluorescence, Yield and Yield Components of Two Oat Genotypes under Saline Conditions

by Xudong Song, Guisheng Zhou, Bao-Luo Ma, Wei Wu, Irshad Ahmad, Guanglong Zhu, Weikai Yan and Xiurong Jiao

Agronomy 2019, 9(3), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9030115 - 27 Feb 2019

Cited by 40 | Viewed by 4260

Abstract

: Understanding the interaction between salinity and nitrogen (N) nutrition is of great economic importance to improve plant growth and grain yield for oat plants. The objective of this study was to investigate whether N application could alleviate the negative effect of salinity (NaCl) stress on oat physiological parameters and yield performance. Two oat genotypes with contrasting salt tolerance response (6-SA120097, a salt-tolerant genotype SA and 153-ND121147, salt-sensitive ND) were grown under four N rates (0, 100, 200, and 400 mg N pot⁻¹) in non-saline and saline (100 mM NaCl) conditions. The results showed that salinity, N fertilization and their interaction significantly affected the photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (aNUE), physiological nitrogen efficiency (pNUE) and apparent nitrogen recovery (ANR), seed number, and grain yield. Saline stress reduced gas exchange rate, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), grain yield, and yield components. N fertilization increased photosynthetic productivity and chlorophyll fluorescence, resulting in improved grain yields and yield components for both genotypes. On average, the photosynthetic rate was increased by 38.7%, 74.1%, and 98.8% for SA and by 49.8%, 77.6%, and 110% for ND, respectively, under the N rates of 100, 200, and 400 mg N pot⁻¹, as compared with non-fertilized treatment. In addition, grain yield was increased by 80.6% for genotype SA and 88.7% for genotype ND under higher N application rate (200 mg N pot⁻¹) in comparison with the non-nitrogen treatment. Our experimental results showed that an increase of N supply can alleviate the negative effects induced by salinity stress and improved plant growth and yield by maintaining the integrity of the photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence processes of oat plants, which provides a valuable agronomic strategy for improving oat production in salt-affected soils. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics and Breeding Related to Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop Plants)

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