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Optimized Nitrogen Topdressing Strategies Enhance Steviol Glycoside Productivity in Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) Plants

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Abstract

The nitrogen (N) management is crucial to stevia growth and steviol glycoside (SG) production. Although previous studies have concentrated on the impacts caused by N fertilization rates, very few studies are concerning N topdressing strategies. We hypothesized that stevia biomass and SG productivity can be effectively increased by altering the ratio of base fertilization:first topdressing at the seedling stage:second topdressing at the branching stage. The current plot experiment was undertaken to evaluate such effects. Compared with one-time basal fertilization, optimized N topdressing ratios (especially the 5:3:2 and 4:3:3 ratios) significantly enhanced the leaf biomass formation and aboveground N accumulation. Different results were observed for the leaf SG concentrations, and increasing the topdressing proportions critically reduced the total leaf SG concentrations (3.3–24.7%) at the harvest stage. The highest values for total SG accumulation were exhibited under the 6:4:0 and 5:3:2 topdressing strategies, which depend on the changes in biomass and SG concentration. Moreover, a significant negative correlation between leaf SGs and the N concentration was observed at all growth stages, but a positive correlation was observed with the leaf C/N ratio and soluble sugar concentrations. Our results suggest the potential for increasing SG productivity by optimizing N fertilization regimes, especially with an appropriate reduction in the topdressing ratio after the vegetative growth stage. Our findings further expanded the effect of topdressing strategies on SG production based on the N fertilization levels.

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Abbreviations

N:

Nitrogen

SGs:

Steviol glycosides

STV:

Stevioside

Reb A:

Rebaudioside A

Reb C:

Rebaudioside C

NUE:

Nitrogen use efficiency

TSGs:

Total steviol glycosides

C:

Carbon

NUES:

N use efficiency of SGs

NFS:

N fertilization strategy

SS:

Seedling stage

BS:

Branching stage

FBS:

Flower bud stage

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20180312) and Jiangsu Key Laboratory for the Research and Utilization of Plant Resources (JSPKLB201810).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for the Research and Utilization of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Qianhuhoucun Village, Zhongshan Gate, Nan**g, 210014, China

    Yuming Sun, Yongheng Yang, Menglan Hou, Ting Zhang, Suzhen Huang, **aoyang Xu & Haiyan Yuan

  2. College of Resources and Environment, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, 080301, Shanxi, China

    **aolei Huang

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  1. Yuming Sun
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  2. Yongheng Yang
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  3. Menglan Hou
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  4. **aolei Huang
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  5. Ting Zhang
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  6. Suzhen Huang
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  7. **aoyang Xu
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Contributions

Yuming Sun: investigation, writing (original draft), funding acquisition; Yongheng Yang: investigation, resources; Menglan Hou: investigation; **aolei Huang: investigation; Ting Zhang: data curation; Suzhen Huang: resources; **aoyang Xu: conceptualization, writing (review and editing); Haiyan Yuan: conceptualization, writing (review and editing)

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Correspondence to **aoyang Xu or Haiyan Yuan.

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Sun, Y., Yang, Y., Hou, M. et al. Optimized Nitrogen Topdressing Strategies Enhance Steviol Glycoside Productivity in Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) Plants. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 20, 1133–1143 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00199-w

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