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Plants
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Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency
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Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 December 2022) | Viewed by 8880

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Oorbessy Gaju

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology, University of Lincoln, Riseholme Park, Lincoln LN2 2LG, UK
Interests: nitrogen use efficiency; photosynthesis; high throughput phenotyping; crop yield; sustainable agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer represents a significant cost for the grower and has environmental impacts through nitrate leaching and N2O (a greenhouse gas) emissions. Nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) can be defined as the grain dry matter yield divided by the supply of available nitrogen (N) from the soil and fertilizer, and with many countries pushing to reach a net zero target, reducing N inputs is one of the ways to achieve this goal. Nitrogen affects plant growth and development at the cellular, biochemical, and physiological levels, and its deficiency results in lower yield and productivity. An understanding is required about which traits determine yield under low N conditions in order to increase NUE and reduce the use of N fertilizer, as well as using novel approaches to rapidly measure N-efficient traits. This Special Issue of Plants will focus on the new phenotypic and genetic traits being investigated to study nitrogen use efficiency in plants.

Dr. Oorbessy Gaju
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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

  • nitrogen uptake/assimilation
  • nitrogen remobilization
  • nitrogen regimes
  • spectral indices
  • phenotypic tools
  • photosynthesis
  • crop breeding
  • genetic diversity

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5355 KiB  
Article
Spring Wheat’s Ability to Utilize Nitrogen More Effectively Is Influenced by Root Phene Variation
by Rumesh Ranjan, Rajbir Yadav, Kiran B. Gaikwad, Naresh Kumar Bainsla, Manjeet Kumar, Prashanth Babu and Palaparthi Dharmateja
Plants 2023, 12(5), 1010; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051010 - 23 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 954
Abstract
Genetic improvement for nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) can play a very crucial role in sustainable agriculture. Root traits have hardly been explored in major wheat breeding programs, more so in spring germplasm, largely because of the difficulty in their scoring. A total of [...] Read more.
Genetic improvement for nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) can play a very crucial role in sustainable agriculture. Root traits have hardly been explored in major wheat breeding programs, more so in spring germplasm, largely because of the difficulty in their scoring. A total of 175 advanced/improved Indian spring wheat genotypes were screened for root traits and nitrogen uptake and nitrogen utilization at varying nitrogen levels in hydroponic conditions to dissect the complex NUE trait into its component traits and to study the extent of variability that exists for those traits in Indian germplasm. Analysis of genetic variance showed a considerable amount of genetic variability for nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUpE), nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE), and most of the root and shoot traits. Improved spring wheat breeding lines were found to have very large variability for maximum root length (MRL) and root dry weights (RDW) with strong genetic advance. In contrast to high nitrogen (HN), a low nitrogen (LN) environment was more effective in differentiating wheat genotypes for NUE and its component traits. Shoot dry weight (SDW), RDW, MRL, and NUpE were found to have a strong association with NUE. Further study revealed the role of root surface area (RSA) and total root length (TRL) in RDW formation as well as in nitrogen uptake and therefore can be targeted for selection to further the genetic gain for grain yield under high input or sustainable agriculture under limited inputs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency)
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12 pages, 1227 KiB  
Article
The Other Mechanisms by Which the Rht Genes Improve the Harvest Index of Wheat
by Celestin Ukozehasi, Eric S. Ober and Howard Griffiths
Plants 2022, 11(21), 2837; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11212837 - 25 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1877
Abstract
Uncovering the mechanism that underlies the relationship between crop height and grain yield would potentially inform the strategies for improving wheat with optimal height. The aim of the research reported here was to identify the attributes able to produce wheat yield increases in [...] Read more.
Uncovering the mechanism that underlies the relationship between crop height and grain yield would potentially inform the strategies for improving wheat with optimal height. The aim of the research reported here was to identify the attributes able to produce wheat yield increases in Rht genotypes without further straw-shortening. Attention was given to examination in a controlled environment the question of the mechanistic foundation that determined the relationship between wheat height and yield in lines (Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b, Rht-B1c, Rht-D1c) compared to wild types in Mercia background. In addition to height reduction, this research revealed three other mechanisms by which the Rht genes may also improve the Harvest Index (HI) of wheat: (i) low Specific Leaf Area (SLA), (ii) increased Mean Residence Time (MRT) of Nitrogen (N), and (iii) increased grain number on spike. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency)
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17 pages, 1572 KiB  
Article
Allometric Characteristics of Rice Seedlings under Different Transplanted Hills and Row Spacing: Impacts on Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Yield
by Xiaoyan Wu, Izhar Ali, Anas Iqbal, Saif Ullah, Pengli Yuan, Anjie Xu, Dongjie Xie, Yuxi Zhou, Xinlu Long, Hua Zhang, Jing Yu, Zixiong Guo, He Liang, Shanqing Wei and Ligeng Jiang
Plants 2022, 11(19), 2508; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11192508 - 26 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1324
Abstract
The number of seedlings per hill and the configuration of plant row spacing are important management measures to improve rice yield. In the present study, we evaluated the impact of various seedlings per hill (1, 3, 6, and 9 seedlings hill−1) [...] Read more.
The number of seedlings per hill and the configuration of plant row spacing are important management measures to improve rice yield. In the present study, we evaluated the impact of various seedlings per hill (1, 3, 6, and 9 seedlings hill−1) under four different rice verities (two conventional rice, two hybrid rice) on allometric characteristics, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and yield in 2020 at early and late season. Results showed that compared with nine seedlings per hill (wide row spacing), the number of effective panicles, yield, grain biomass allocation, grain-to-leaf ratio, grain nitrogen accumulation, nitrogen dry matter production efficiency (NDMPE), N harvest index (NHI) of 1 seedling per hill increased by 21.8%, 10.91%, 10.5%, 32.25%, 17.03%, 9.67%, 6.5%, respectively. With the increase of seedlings per hill and the expansion of row spacing, stem biomass (SB) and reproductive biomass (RB) increased with the increase of above-ground biomass, mainly showing the relationship of isometric growth. Leaf biomass (LB) increased with above-ground biomass, mainly showing the relationship of allometric growth. The results suggested that under the same basic seedlings, transplanting 1 seedling per hill and dense planting was the most beneficial to improve rice yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency)
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20 pages, 2379 KiB  
Article
Improvement of Maize Productivity and N Use Efficiency in a No-Tillage Irrigated Farming System: Effect of Cropping Sequence and Fertilization Management
by Heba S. A. Salama, Ali I. Nawar, Hassan E. Khalil and Ahmed M. Shaalan
Plants 2021, 10(7), 1459; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10071459 - 16 Jul 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3674
Abstract
The sequence of the preceding crops in a no-tillage farming system, could interact with the integrated use of mineral and organic nitrogen (N) sources in a way that improves the growth and productivity of the terminal maize crop, meanwhile, enhancing its N use [...] Read more.
The sequence of the preceding crops in a no-tillage farming system, could interact with the integrated use of mineral and organic nitrogen (N) sources in a way that improves the growth and productivity of the terminal maize crop, meanwhile, enhancing its N use efficiency (NUE). In the current study, six legume-cereal crop sequences, including faba bean, soybean, Egyptian clover, wheat, and maize were evaluated along two experimental rotations that ended up by planting the terminal maize crop. In addition, the effects of applying variable mineral nitrogen (MN) rates with and without the incorporation of farmyard manure (FYM) on the productive performance of maize and its NUE were tested. The field experiments were conducted in a no-tillage irrigated farming system in Northern Egypt, a location that is characterized by its arid, Mediterranean climate. Results revealed that increasing the legume component in the evaluated crop sequences, up to 75%, resulted in improved maize ear leaf area, 1000-grain weight, and harvest index, thus, a higher final grain yield, with the inclusion of Egyptian clover was slightly better than faba bean. Comparing the crop sequences with 50% legume contribution uncovered the positive effects of soybean preceding crop on the terminal maize crop. Substituting 25% of the applied MN with FYM resulted in similar maize yields to the application of the equivalent 100% MN rates. The fertilizer treatments significantly interacted with the crop sequences in determining the maize grain yield, where the highest legume crop contribution in the crop sequence (75%) equalized the effects of the different fertilizer treatments on maize grain yield. The integrated use of FYM with MN in maize fertilization improved the NUE compared to the application of MN alone. Comparing fertilization treatments with similar MN content, with and without FYM, revealed that the difference in NUE was attributed to the additional amount of FYM. In similar conditions to the current study, it is recommended to grow faba bean two years before maize, while Egyptian clover could be grown directly preceding maize growth, with frequent inclusion of soybean in the sequence, this could be combined with the application of an average of 200 kg MN ha−1 in addition to FYM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Physiology and Nitrogen Use Efficiency)
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