Young Tomato Plants Respond Differently under Single or Combined Mild Nitrogen and Water Deficit: An Insight into Morphophysiological Responses and Primary Metabolism

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2023

Authors

Machado, J (Author) Other; Vasconcelos, MW (Author) Other; Soares, C (Author) Other; Fernanda Fidalgo (Author) FCUP; Heuvelink, E (Author) Other; Carvalho, SMP (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Plants

Vol. 12

Final page: 1181

Publisher: MDPI

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 5 Citations

Scopus

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Y-1B7

DOI: 10.3390/plants12051181

Abstract (EN): This study aimed to understand the morphophysiological responses and primary metabolism of tomato seedlings subjected to mild levels of nitrogen and/or water deficit (50% N and/or 50% W). After 16 days of exposure, plants grown under the combined deficit showed similar behavior to the one found upon exposure to single N deficit. Both N deficit treatments resulted in a significantly lower dry weight, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and N accumulation but in a higher N use efficiency when compared to control (CTR) plants. Moreover, concerning plant metabolism, at the shoot level, these two treatments also responded in a similar way, inducing higher C/N ratio, nitrate reductase (NR) and glutamine synthetase (GS) activity, expression of RuBisCO encoding genes as well as a downregulation of GS2.1 and GS2.2 transcripts. Interestingly, plant metabolic responses at the root level did not follow the same pattern, with plants under combined deficit behaving similarly to W deficit plants, resulting in enhanced nitrate and proline concentrations, NR activity, and an upregulation of GS1 and NR genes than in CTR plants. Overall, our data suggest that the N remobilization and osmoregulation strategies play a relevant role in plant acclimation to these abiotic stresses and highlight the complexity of plant responses under a combined N+W deficit.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 21