Distinct metabolite classes in root exudates are indicative for field- or hydroponically-grown cover crops.

Introduction: Plants release a large variety of metabolites via their roots to shape physico-chemical soil properties and biological processes in the rhizosphere. While hydroponic growth conditions facilitate accessibility of the root system and recovery of root exudates, the natural soil environment can alter root metabolism and exudate secretion, raising the question to what extent the quantity and composition of root exudates released in hydroponic growth systems reflect those recovered from soil-grown roots. Methods: Using a root washing method, we sampled root exudates from four field-grown cover crop species with wide taxonomic distance, namely white mustard, lacy phacelia, bristle oat, and Egyptian clover. A set of primary metabolites and secondary metabolites were analysed in a targeted and untargeted LC-MS-based approach, respectively, for comparison with exudates obtained from hydroponically cultured plants. Results and discussion: We found that hydroponically cultivated plants released a larger amount of total carbon, but that the recovery of total carbon was not indicative for the diversity of metabolites in root exudates. In the field, root exudates from phacelia and clover contained 2.4 to 3.8 times more secondary metabolites, whereas carbon exudation in hydroponics was 5- to 4-fold higher. The composition of the set of metabolites identified using the untargeted approach was much more distinct among all species and growth conditions than that of quantified primary metabolites. Among secondary metabolite classes, the presence of lipids and lipid-like molecules was highly indicative for field samples, while the release of a large amount of phenylpropanoids, organoheterocyclic compounds or benzenoids was characteristic for clover, mustard or oat, respectively, irrespective of the cultivation condition. However, at the compound level the bulk of released metabolites was specific for cultivation conditions in every species, which implies that hydroponically sampled root exudates poorly reflect the metabolic complexity of root exudates recovered from field-grown plants.

Author Correction: Interspecific competition among catch crops modifies vertical root biomass distribution and nitrate scavenging in soils.

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Seed Yield and Nitrogen Efficiency in Oilseed Rape After Ammonium Nitrate or Urea Fertilization.

In agricultural plant production, nitrate, ammonium, and urea are the major fertilized nitrogen forms, which differ in root uptake and downstream signaling processes in plants. Nitrate is known to stimulate cytokinin synthesis in roots, while for urea no hormonal effect has been described yet. Elevated cytokinin levels can delay plant senescence favoring prolonged nitrogen uptake. As the cultivation of winter oilseed rape provokes high nitrogen-balance surpluses, we tested the hypotheses whether nitrogen use efficiency increases under ammonium nitrate- relative to urea-based nutrition and whether this is subject to genotypic variation. In a 2-year field study, 15 oilseed rape lines were fertilized either with ammonium nitrate or with urease inhibitor-stabilized urea and analyzed for seed yield and nitrogen-related yield parameters. Despite a significant environmental impact on the performance of the individual lines, which did not allow revealing consistent impact of the genotype, ammonium nitrate-based nutrition tended to increase seed yield in average over all lines. To resolve whether the fertilizer N forms act on grain yield via phytohormones, we collected xylem exudates at three developmental stages and determined the translocation rates of cytokinins and N forms. Relative to urea, ammonium nitrate-based nutrition enhanced the translocation of nitrate or total nitrogen together with cytokinins, whereas in the urea treatment translocation rates were lower as long as urea remained stable in the soil solution. At later developmental stages, i.e., when urea became hydrolyzed, nitrogen and cytokinin translocation increased. In consequence, urea tended to increase nitrogen partitioning in the shoot toward generative organs. However, differences in overall nitrogen accumulation in shoots were not present at the end of the vegetation period, and neither nitrogen uptake nor utilization efficiency was consistently different between the two applied nitrogen forms.

Interspecific competition among catch crops modifies vertical root biomass distribution and nitrate scavenging in soils.

The potential of a plant species to acquire nutrients depends on its ability to explore the soil by its root system. Co-cultivation of different species is anticipated to lead to vertical root niche differentiation and thus to higher soil nutrient depletion. Using a qPCR-based method we quantified root biomass distribution of four catch crop species in vertical soil profiles in pure vs. mixed stands. Pure stands of mustard and phacelia robustly reached 70 cm soil depth, while oat preferably colonized upper soil layers, and clover developed the shallowest and smallest root system. Analysis of residual nitrate pools in different soil depths and correlation with root biomass showed that, besides rooting depth also root biomass determines soil nitrogen depletion. While occupying the same vertical niches as in pure stands, mustard and phacelia dominated total root biomass of the mix. In contrast, root biomass of clover and oat was severely suppressed in presence of the other species. Below-ground biomass profiling indicated low niche complementarity among the root systems of the examined species. Nonetheless, the mixture mostly overyielded root biomass of the pure stands and thus shows higher potential for efficient soil exploration by roots.