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Biradar SS, Patil MK, Desai SA, Singh SK, Naik VR, Lamani K, Joshi AK. Nitrogen use efficiency in bread wheat: Genetic variation and prospects for improvement. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0294755. [PMID: 38598487 PMCID: PMC11006162 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 04/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is one of the primary macronutrients required for crop growth and yield. This nutrient is especially limiting wheat yields in the dry and low fertile agro-ecologies having low N in the root zone soil strata. Moreover, majority of farmers in India and South Asia are small to marginal with meagre capacity to invest in costly nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, there is an immense need to identify lines that use nitrogen efficiently. A set of 50 diverse wheat genotypes consisting of indigenous germplasm lines (05), cultivars released for commercial cultivation (23) and selected elite lines from CIMMYT nurseries (22) were evaluated in an alpha-lattice design with two replications, a six-rowed plot of 2.5m length for 24 agro morphological, physiological and NUE related traits during two consecutive crop seasons in an N-depleted precision field under two different N levels of 50%-N50 (T1) and 100%-N100 (T2) of recommended N, i.e., 100 kg/ha. Analysis of variance revealed significant genetic variation among genotypes for all the traits studied. About 11.36% yield reduction was observed at reduced N levels. Significant correlations among NUE traits and yield component traits were observed which indicated pivotal role of N remobilization to the grain in enhancing yield levels. Among N-insensitive genotypes identified based on their yielding ability at low N levels, UASBW13356, UASBW13358, UASBW13354, UASBW13357 and KRL1-4 showed their inherent genotypic plasticity toward N application. The genotypes with more yield and high to moderate NUtE can be used as parents for the breeding of N efficient genotypes for marginal agro-ecologies. Low N tolerant genotypes identified from the current investigation may be further utilized in the identification of genomic regions responsible for NUE and its deployment in wheat breeding programs. The comprehensive data of 24 traits under different nitrogen levels for diverse genotypes from India and global sources (mainly CIMMYT) should be useful for supporting breeding for NUE and thus will be of great help for small and marginal farmers in India and South Asia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suma S. Biradar
- AICRP on Wheat, MARS, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India
| | - Mahalaxmi K. Patil
- Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India
| | - S. A. Desai
- Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India
| | - Sanjay K. Singh
- Genetics Division, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
| | - V. Rudra Naik
- Directorate of Research, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India
| | - Kumar Lamani
- Department of Agronomy, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India
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Laidig F, Feike T, Lichthardt C, Schierholt A, Piepho HP. Breeding progress of nitrogen use efficiency of cereal crops, winter oilseed rape and peas in long-term variety trials. TAG. THEORETICAL AND APPLIED GENETICS. THEORETISCHE UND ANGEWANDTE GENETIK 2024; 137:45. [PMID: 38329519 PMCID: PMC10853085 DOI: 10.1007/s00122-023-04521-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
KEY MESSAGE Grain yield and NUE increased over time while nitrogen yield did not drop significantly despite reduced nitrogen input. Selection for grain and nitrogen yield is equivalent to selection for NUE. Breeding and registration of improved varieties with high yield, processing quality, disease resistance and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) are of utmost importance for sustainable crop production to minimize adverse environmental impact and contribute to food security. Based on long-term variety trials of cereals, winter oilseed rape and grain peas tested across a wide range of environmental conditions in Germany, we quantified long-term breeding progress for NUE and related traits. We estimated the genotypic, environmental and genotype-by-environment interaction variation and correlation between traits and derived heritability coefficients. Nitrogen fertilizer application was considerably reduced between 1995 and 2021 in the range of 5.4% for winter wheat and 28.9% for spring wheat while for spring barley it was increased by 20.9%. Despite the apparent nitrogen reduction for most crops, grain yield (GYLD) and nitrogen accumulation in grain (NYLD) was increased or did not significantly decrease. NUE for GYLD increased significantly for all crops between 12.8% and 35.2% and for NYLD between 8% and 20.7%. We further showed that the genotypic rank of varieties for GYLD and NYLD was about equivalent to the genotypic rank of the corresponding traits of NUE, if all varieties in a trial were treated with the same nitrogen rate. Heritability of nitrogen yield was about the same as that of grain yield, suggesting that nitrogen yield should be considered as an additional criterion for variety testing to increase NUE and reduce negative environmental impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- F Laidig
- Institute of Crop Science, Biostatistics Unit, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstrasse 23, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany.
| | - T Feike
- Julius Kühn Institute - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Strategies and Technology Assessment, Stahnsdorfer Damm 81, 14532, Kleinmachnow, Germany
| | - C Lichthardt
- Bundessortenamt, Osterfelddamm 60, 30627, Hannover, Germany
| | - A Schierholt
- Plant Breeding Methodology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Carl-Sprengel-Weg 1, 37075, Göttingen, Germany
| | - H P Piepho
- Institute of Crop Science, Biostatistics Unit, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstrasse 23, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany
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Sheoran P, Kamboj P, Kumar A, Kumar A, Singh RK, Barman A, Prajapat K, Mandal S, Yousuf DJ, Narjary B, Kumar S. Matching N supply for yield maximization in salt-affected wheat agri-food systems: On-farm participatory assessment and validation. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 875:162573. [PMID: 36871711 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Driven by the UN-SDGs of achieving food security and agricultural sustainability, it remains more challenging in degraded ecosystems to simultaneously improve the crop performance without creating unintended favour for excessive fertilization and associated environmental consequences. We assessed the N-use pattern of 105 wheat-growers in sodicity affected Ghaghar Basin of Haryana, India, and then experimented upon to optimize and identify indicators of efficient N use in contrasting wheat cultivars for sustainable production. The survey results revealed that majority of farmers (88%) have increased their reliance on N nutrition (∼18 % extra N), and even extended their duration of N scheduling (12-15 days) for better plant adaptation and yield insurance in sodicity stressed wheat; albeit to a greater extent in moderately sodic soils applying 192 kg N ha-1 in 62 days. The participatory trials validated the farmers' perception of using more than the recommended N in sodic lands. This could realize the transformative improvements in plant physiological [higher photosynthetic rate (Pn; 5 %) and transpiration rate (E; 9 %)] and yield [more tillers (ET; 3 %), grains spike-1 (GS; 6 %) and healthier grains (TGW; 3 %)] traits culminating in ∼20 % higher yield at 200 kg N ha-1 (N200). However, further incremental N application had no apparent yield advantage or monetary benefits. At N200, every additional kilogram of N captured by the crop beyond the recommended N improved grain yields by 36.1 kg ha-1 in KRL 210 and 33.7 kg ha-1 in HD 2967. Further, the varietal differences for N requirements, with 173 kg ha-1 in KRL 210 and 188 kg ha-1 in HD 2967, warrants the need of applying balanced fertilizer dose and advocate revision of existing N recommendations to cope up the sodicity induced agricultural vulnerability. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and correlation matrix showed N uptake efficiency (NUpE) and total N uptake (TNUP) as the highly weighted variables illustrating strong positive association with grain yield, and potentially deciding the fate of proper N utilization in sodicity stressed wheat. Key insights suggested that combining participatory research with farmers' knowledge and local perspective could be decisive in better integration of technologies, and serving to adapt the real-time soil sodicity stress and sustaining wheat yields with economized farm profits.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Paras Kamboj
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Arvind Kumar
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India.
| | - Ashwani Kumar
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India.
| | - Ranjay K Singh
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India.
| | - Arijit Barman
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India; ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning, Regional Station, Jorhat, Assam, India.
| | | | - Subhasis Mandal
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | | | - Bhaskar Narjary
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India.
| | - Satyendra Kumar
- ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India.
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Teng W, He X, Tong Y. Genetic Control of Efficient Nitrogen Use for High Yield and Grain Protein Concentration in Wheat: A Review. PLANTS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 11:plants11040492. [PMID: 35214826 PMCID: PMC8878021 DOI: 10.3390/plants11040492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 01/29/2022] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
The increasing global population and the negative effects of nitrogen (N) fertilizers on the environment challenge wheat breeding to maximize yield potential and grain protein concentration (GPC) in an economically and environmentally friendly manner. Understanding the molecular mechanisms for the response of yield components to N availability and assimilates allocation to grains provides the opportunity to increase wheat yield and GPC simultaneously. This review summarized quantitative trait loci/genes which can increase spikes and grain number by enhancing N uptake and assimilation at relative early growth stage, and 1000-grain weight and GPC by increasing post-anthesis N uptake and N allocation to grains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wan Teng
- The State Key Laboratory for Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (W.T.); (X.H.)
| | - Xue He
- The State Key Laboratory for Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (W.T.); (X.H.)
| | - Yiping Tong
- The State Key Laboratory for Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (W.T.); (X.H.)
- College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-10-64806556
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