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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Carbon and nitrogen metabolism in arbuscular mycorrhizal maize plants under low-temperature stress

Xian-Can Zhu A C , Feng-Bin Song A , Fu-Lai Liu B , Sheng-Qun Liu A and Chun-Jie Tian A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, P.R. China.

B Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Taastrup DK-2630, Denmark.

C Corresponding author. Email: zhuxiancan@neigae.ac.cn

Crop and Pasture Science 66(1) 62-70 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP14159
Submitted: 9 June 2014  Accepted: 18 August 2014   Published: 9 January 2015

Abstract

Effects of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Glomus tortuosum on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) metabolism of Zea mays L. grown under low-temperature stress was investigated. Maize plants inoculated or not inoculated with AM fungus were grown in a growth chamber at 25°C for 4 weeks and subsequently subjected to two temperature treatments (15°C, low temperature; 25°C, ambient control) for 2 weeks. Low-temperature stress significantly decreased AM colonisation, plant height and biomass. Total N content and activities of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and glutamate pyruvate transaminase of AM plants were higher than those of non-AM plants. AM plants had a higher net photosynthetic rate (Pn) than non-AM plants, although low temperature inhibited the Pn. Compared with non-AM plants, AM plants exhibited higher leaf soluble sugars, reducing sugars, root sucrose and fructose contents, and sucrose phosphate synthase and amylase activities at low temperature. Moreover, low-temperature stress increased the C : N ratio in the leaves of maize plants, and AM colonisation decreased the root C : N ratio. These results suggested a difference in the C and N metabolism of maize plants at ambient and low temperature regimes. AM symbiosis modulated C metabolic enzymes, thereby inducing an accumulation of soluble sugars, which may have contributed to an increased tolerance to low temperature, and therefore higher Pn in maize plants.

Additional keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, carbohydrates, N assimilation, photosynthesis, sucrose metabolism, Zea mays L.


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