Effect of Coated Diammonium Phosphate Combined with Paecilomyces variotii Extracts on Soil Available Nutrients, Photosynthesis-Related Enzyme Activities, Endogenous Hormones, and Maize Yield

Guohua Ma; Qi Chen; Ruolin Shi; Bo Kong; Dayin Chen; Zixin Zhang; Xinzhu Li; Zhaoming Qu; Mingyang Li; Min Zhang; Zhiguang Liu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c02102

Effect of Coated Diammonium Phosphate Combined with Paecilomyces variotii Extracts on Soil Available Nutrients, Photosynthesis-Related Enzyme Activities, Endogenous Hormones, and Maize Yield

ACS Omega. 2022 Jun 29;7(27):23566-23575. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c02102. eCollection 2022 Jul 12.

Authors

Guohua Ma¹, Qi Chen¹, Ruolin Shi¹, Bo Kong², Dayin Chen², Zixin Zhang¹, Xinzhu Li³, Zhaoming Qu¹, Mingyang Li¹, Min Zhang¹, Zhiguang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Utilization of Soil and Fertilizer Resources, College of Resources and Environment, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, Shandong, China.
² Shandong Pengbo Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Taian 271018, Shandong, China.
³ Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Linshu 276700, Shandong, China.

Abstract

Coated diammonium phosphate (CDAP) is intended to release nutrients steadily in response to the demand of crop growth. A novel biostimulant extracted from Paecilomyces variotii has been shown to regulate gene expression in nutrient transport, enhance nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) uptake, and improve nutrient use efficiency. The application of CDAP combined with the Paecilomyces variotii extracts (ZNC) in maize is an efficient approach for reducing waste of resources, improving nutrient supply, and maintaining production stability. The effects of CDAP combined with ZNC on photosynthesis, enzyme activities, endogenous hormone content, maize yield, and P use efficiency (PUE) were investigated in this study. In a pot experiment, CDAP and diammonium phosphate (DAP) were tested together with P levels (1.80, 1.44 g pot^-1, P₂O₅) and two ZNC application rates (0, 4.4 μg pot^-1), which included the control treatment that had no P fertilizer added. Results showed that the key influencing elements of maize growth and yield were the soil available-P content, endogenous hormone content, and plant photosynthesis in this study. The combination of DAP and ZNC increased the soil available-P content and the auxin content in leaves at the key stage and hence increased the yield and PUE of maize, compared with DAP. The net photosynthetic rate of CDAP combined with ZNC was higher by 23.1% than that of CDAP alone, as well as by 32.0% than that of DAP combined with ZNC. Moreover, the combination of CDAP and ZNC increased the yield and PUE by 8.2% and 15.6 percentage points compared with DAP combined with ZNC while increasing the yield and PUE compared with CDAP. In conclusion, combining CDAP with ZNC as an environmentally friendly fertilizer could improve photosynthesis-related enzyme activity and enhance the net photosynthetic rate, resulting in an increase in maize yield and PUE significantly.