Regulation of Density and Fertilization on Crude Protein Synthesis in Forage Maize in a Semiarid Rain-Fed Area

Hongli Wang, Xucheng Zhang (), Guoping Zhang, Yanjie Fang, Huizhi Hou, Kangning Lei and Yifan Ma
Additional contact information
Hongli Wang: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Xucheng Zhang: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Guoping Zhang: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yanjie Fang: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Huizhi Hou: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Kangning Lei: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yifan Ma: Institute of Dryland Farming, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Science, Lanzhou 730070, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Density and fertilization mode are the key factors regulating crude protein synthesis in forage maize; however, there is a lack of systematic understanding of the regulation mechanism. Here, the nitrogen/potassium ratio (N/K), free amino acid (AA) content, crude protein synthesis key enzyme activities (nitrate reductase (NR), glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT)) and crude protein content and yield in leaves, stems, and grain of forage maize, as well as the relationships among them, were explored. The results showed that the N/K of DL-40 (60,000 plants per ha −1 , 40% N topdressing at large trumpet stage) and DH-50 (75,000 plants per ha −1 , 50% N topdressing at large trumpet stage) significantly increased in leaves, stems, and grain, and correspondingly, NR, GS, and GPT activities in leaves, NR activities in stems, NR and GPT activities in grain, and delayed the decline in AA content. After tasseling, for DL-40 and DH-50 the crude protein content increased by 74.1% and 39.8% in leaves, respectively, 19.9% and 25.6% in grain, respectively, and crude protein yield increased by 16.7% and 35.2% in leaves, respectively, and 23.5% and 25.9% in grain, respectively. There were significant quadratic parabolic relationships of NR, GS, and GPT activities with proportion of topdressing. There was a significant relationship of crude protein content with NR activity in leaves, with NR, GS, and GPT activities in stems and with GPT activity in grain. Regulating the key enzyme activity by adjusting the density and fertilization can significantly improve the crude protein yield of forage maize. Treatments DL-40 and DH-50 significantly increased crude protein content and yield by increasing plant N/K, NR activity in leaves, NR activity in stems, and GPT activity in grain, but slowed the decrease in AA content in leaves, stems, and grain.

Keywords: forage maize quality; density; fertilization methods; crude protein synthesis; regulation; quality improvement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/715/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/715/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:715-:d:1101883

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().