Crescimento, trocas gasosas, partição de íons e metabolismo do nitrogênio em plantas de milho submetidas à salinidade e diferentes fontes de N.

Abstract

This work aimed to study the effect of N source in the growing, gas exchanges, ion partitions and N metabolism in maize plants (Zea mays L.) submitted to salinity. For this, maize seeds were sown in plastic cups with vermiculite and maintained in greenhouse. After that, the seedlings were transferred to a hydroponics culture with N concentration of 6 mM, in the forms of NO3-, NO3-/NH4+ or NH4+. After five days in these conditions, we started the addition of NaCl, which was gradually increased each day by 25 mM until it reaches a final concentration of 100 mM. The harvests were carried out 4, 11 and 18 days after the beginning of the salt treatment. In control conditions, the plants fed with the mixed NO3-/NH4+ were the ones which presented the greatest shoot growth, compared to other N treatments. There was a great growth reduction when the plants were submitted to salinity, but this effect was not influenced by the N source used. Generally, the salinity reduced the stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration (E), photosynthesis (A) and the relation between the intercellular and outercellular CO2 concentration (Ci/Co ) in plants of all N treatments and in different times of harvest. However, in plants fed with NH4+ and after 18 day of salt treatment a great reduction in the gs, A and E and an increase in the Ci/Co ratio were observed. The Na+ contents increased with salinity, despite that, in plants fed with NH4+, these contents were lower than in the other N treatments in salinity conditions. The K+ contents, on the other hand, were reduced by salinity, and the plants fed with the mixed NO3-/ NH4+ and only NH4+ absorbed less K+ than the ones fed only with NO3-, mainly in the leaves and stems of plants after 11 days and in leaves and roots of plants after 18 days of salt stress. This way, there was influence of N source in the Na+/K+ ratio, particularly in roots of plants after 18 days of exposure to salt stress, whose lower increases in this parameter were observed in the plants treated only with NO3-. The greatest increments in the Cl- contents caused by salinity were observed in plants fed with NO3- and with the mixed NO3-/ NH4+. However, in control conditions, these contents were increased in leaves and stems of plants fed only with NH4+. The NO3- contents were higher in plants fed with NO3- and NO3-/NH4+, when compared to the ones fed only with NH4+, both in control and salinity conditions. The greatest and lowest Cl-/NO3- ratio were found, respectively, in plants treated with NO3- and with NH4+. The shoot NH4+ contents were little influenced by salinity or by N source, however, in roots of plants fed with NH4+ and under salinity, there was a great accumulation of these ions after 18 days of stress. The soluble carbohydrates contents, in general, increased by salinity, except in the leaves and stems (after 18 days of salt stress) and in the roots (during all the experimental period) of the plants treated with NH4+. Generally, the soluble proteins and soluble amino acids contents were increased by salinity, and the biggest quantities of these solutes were observed in the roots of plants fed with NH4+ and after 18 days of salt stress. The total N contents were reduced by salinity and it was observed especially in plants fed only with NO3-. In the leaves, the activities of nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR) were greater in plants fed with NO3- and with the mixed NO3-/ NH4+. Little influence of salinity in NiR activity was observed in maize leaves. In the leaves, the salinity influenced differently the activity of glutamine synthetase (GS) between the different sources of N and time of salt exposure. However, in the roots, in general, the GS activity increased withy salinity, except for the plants fed with NH4+, which were not influenced by this stress. After 18 days of salt exposure, the GS activity was greater in the plants fed with NH4+, compared to the other N treatments. The activity of glutamate synthase (GOGAT), in the leaves, in generral, increased with salinity, despite that, this activity was reduced in the roots mainly in the plants fed with NO3-, after 4 days, and with NH4+, after 11 and 18 days. These results suggest that the several N sources did not influence the tolerance of maize plants to salinity. However, the plants fed with NO3- had better results in ion relations. And greatest GS activities observed in roots of the plants fed with NH4+, after 18 days of stress, helped in the osmotic adjustment, as a consequence of the accumulation of soluble proteins and soluble amino acids.