The effect of nitrate （NO3^-） on rice （Oryza sativa L.） growth as well as N absorption and assimilation during different growth stages was examined using three typical rice cultivars. Dry weight, yield, N uptake, nitrate reductase activity （NRA） in leaves, and glutamine synthetase activity （GSA） in roots and leaves during their entire growth periods, as well as the kinetic parameters of ammonium （NH4^＋） uptake at the seedling stage, were measured with solution culture experiments. Results indicated that addition of NH4^＋-N and NO3^-N at a ratio of 75：25 （NH4^＋＋NO3^- treatment） when compared with that of NH4^＋-N alone （NH4^＋ treatment） increased the dry weight of ‘Nanguang＇ cultivar by 30% and ‘Yunjing 38＇ cultivar by 31%, and also increased their grain yield by 21% and 17%, respectively. For the four growth stages, the total N accumulation in plants increased by an average of 36% for ‘Nanguang＇ and 31% for ‘Yunjing 38＇, whereas the increasing effect of NO3^- in the ‘4007＇ cultivar was only found at the seedling stage, in the NH4^＋＋NO3^- treatment compared to the NH4^＋ treatment, NRA in the leaves increased by 2.09 folds, and GSA increased by 92% in the roots and 52% in the leaves of the three cultivars. NO3^- supply increased the maximum uptake rate （Vmax） in the ‘Nanguang＇ and ‘Yunjing 38＇ cultivars, reflecting that the NO3^- itself, not the increasing N concentration, increased the uptake rate of NH4^＋ by rice. There was no effect on the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant （Kin） of the three cultivars. Thus, some replacement of NH4^＋ with NO3^-could greatly improve the growth of rice plants, mainly on account of the increased uptake of NH4^＋ promoted by NO3^-, and future studies should focus on the molecular mechanism of the increased uptake of NH4^＋ by NO3^-.
DUAN Ying-Hua ZHANG Ya-Li SHEN Qi-Rong WANG Song-Wei
A red soil, a fluvo-aquic soil and a permeable paddy soil were used in a long-term investigation to study changes in nitrification with treatments: 1) soil incubation, 2) liquid incubation inoculated with soil samples, and 3) liquid incubation inoculated with ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) from the soils. There were significant differences (P < 0.001) in nitrification rates among the three soils when measured for 28 days by adding (NH4)SO4 at the rate of 154 mg N kg-1 dry soil to fresh soil. However, t…
Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to compare the effect of NO3^- on the activities of nitrate reductase （NR） and glutamine synthetase （GS）, and the transcript levels of two NR genes, OsNial and OsNia2, two cytosolic GS1 genes, OsGln1;1 and OsGln1;2, and one plastid GS2 gene OsGln2, in two rice （Oryza sativa L.） cultivars Nanguang （NG） and Yunjing （Y J）. Both cultivars achieved greater biomass and higher total N concentration when grown in a mixed N supply than in sole NH4^＋ nutrition. Supply of NO3^- increased NR activity in both leaves and roots. Expression of both NR genes was also substantially enhanced and transcript levels of OsNia2 were significantly higher than those of OsNial. NO3 also caused an increase in GS activity, but had a complex effect on the expression of the three GS genes. In roots, the OsGln1;1 transcript increased, but OsGln1;2 decreased. In leaves, NO3^- had no effect on the GS1 expression, but the transcript for OsGln2 increased both in the leaves and roots of rice with a mixed supply of N. These results suggested that the increase in GS activity might be a result of the complicated regulation of the various GS genes. In addition, the NO3-induced increase of biomass, NR activity, GS activity, and the transcript levels of NR and GS genes were proportionally higher in NG than in Y J, indicating a stronger response of NG to NO3^- nutrition than YJ.
CAO Yun FAN Xiao-Rong SUN Shu-Bin XU Guo-Hua HU Jiang SHEN Qi-Rong
