Chen Cheng¹ , Ronggui Liu¹ , Wenpeng Hou¹ , Michael J. Christensen³ , Yinglong Liu¹ , Jianfeng Wang^1,2

1 State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Center for Grassland Microbiome; Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
2 State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, China
3 Retired Scientist of AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Private Bag 11-008, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 32   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2021.12.0032
Received: 25 Aug., 2021    Accepted: 14 Sep., 2021    Published: 20 Oct., 2021

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cheng C., Liu R.G., Hou W.P., Christensen M.J., Liu Y.L., and Wang J.F., 2021, Effect of Epichloë gansuensis on nutrient resorption efficiency, metal ion concentrations and nutrient ratios of Achnatherum inebrians under various nitrogen concentrations, Molecular Plant Breeding, 12(32): 1-12 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2021.12.0032)

It is well known that low N limits crop yield, but plants can rationally use nutrients to improve the plant growth at adverse environments. However, the effects of E. gansuensis on nutrient resorption efficiency and metal ion contents of Achnatherum inebrians at low N were unknown. A. inebrians with (E+) and without E. gansuensis (E-) were treated with 0.1 mM (low) N and 7.5 mM (normal) N, after 90 days, the dry weight, the contents of N, P, K, Na, Mg, Zn, Cu, Ca and Fe in senescent and green leaves, N/P/K resorption efficiency at 0.1 mM N and 7.5 mM N were assayed. We found that E. gansuensis enhanced the dry weight of green leaves of A. inebrians, and increased nitrogen resorption efficiency (NRE) of host plant, and the content of N and P in green leaves at 0.1 mM N, but decreased N content in senescent leaves compared to E- plant at 0.1 mM N. The E. gansuensis played an important role in improving host grasses growth at low-N stress by enhancing NRE, and influencing the content of Na, Mg, Zn, Cu, Ca and Fe in senescent leaves and green leaves.

Epichloë gansuensis; Low nitrogen; Nutrient resorption efficiency; Achnatherum inebrians