Effect of boron deficiency on the photosynthetic performance of sugar beet cultivars with contrasting boron efficiencies

Xin Song; Baiquan Song; Jialu Huo; Huajun Liu; Muhammad Faheem Adil; Qiue Jia; Wenyu Wu; Abudukadier Kuerban; Yan Wang; Wengong Huang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1101171

Effect of boron deficiency on the photosynthetic performance of sugar beet cultivars with contrasting boron efficiencies

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jan 16:13:1101171. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1101171. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ National Sugar Crops Improvement Center & Sugar Beet Engineering Research Center Heilongjiang Province & College of Advanced Agriculture and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China.
² Research Institute of Economic Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
³ Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm Resources, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Safety and Quality Institution of Agricultural Products, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China.

Abstract

Boron (B) deficiency severely affects the quality of sugar beet production, and the employment of nutrient-efficient varieties for cultivation is a crucial way to solve environmental and resource-based problems. However, the aspect of leaf photosynthetic performance among B-efficient sugar beet cultivars remains uncertain. The B deficient and B-sufficient treatments were conducted in the experiment using KWS1197 (B-efficient) and KWS0143 (B-inefficient) sugar beet cultivars as study materials. The objective of the present study was to determine the impacts of B deficiency on leaf phenotype, photosynthetic capacity, chloroplast structure, and photochemical efficiency of the contrasting B-efficiency sugar beet cultivars. The results indicated that the growth of sugar beet leaves were dramatically restricted, the net photosynthetic rate was significantly decreased, and the energy flux, quantum yield, and flux ratio of PSII reaction centers were adversely affected under B deficiency. Compared to the KWS0143 cultivar, the average leaf area ratio of the KWS1197 cultivar experienced less impact, and its leaf mass ratio (LMR) increased by 26.82% under B deficiency, whereas for the KWS0143 cultivar, the increase was only 2.50%. Meanwhile, the light energy capture and utilization capacity of PSII reaction centers and the proportion of absorbed light energy used for electron transfer were higher by 3.42% under B deficiency; KWS1197 cultivar managed to alleviate the photo-oxidative damage, which results from excessive absorbed energy (ABS/RC), by increasing the dissipated energy (DI_o/RC). Therefore, in response to B deprivation, the KWS1197 cultivar demonstrated greater adaptability in terms of morphological indices and photosynthetic functions, which not only explains the improved performance but also renders the measured parameters as the key features for varietal selection, providing a theoretical basis for the utilization of efficient sugar beet cultivars in future.

Keywords: Beta vulgaris L.; boron deprivation; chlorophyll fluorescence; gas exchange indices; ultrastructure.

Grants and funding

This work is supported by Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences Youth Science and Technology Backbone Innovation Ability Training Project (xjnkq-2020014) and China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-170204 and CARS-170705).