NOTE - The difference between breeding for nutrient use efficiency and for nutrient stress tolerance

• Main Authors: Ciro Maia, Júlio César DoVale, Roberto Fritsche-Neto, Paulo Cezar Cavatte, Glauco Vieira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazilian Society of Plant Breeding 2011-01-01
• Series: Crop Breeding and Applied Biotechnology
• Subjects: plant breeding; abiotic stress; Zea mays L.
• Online Access: http://www.sbmp.org.br/cbab/siscbab/uploads/bd532918-2108-0f52.pdf

This study aimed to verify the relationship between breeding for tolerance to low levels of soil nutrients and fornutrient use efficiency in tropical maize. Fifteen inbred lines were evaluated in two greenhouse experiments under contrasting levelsof N and P. The relationship between nutritional efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress was estimated by the Spearman rankingcorrelation between the genotypes for the traits related to N and P use efficiency and phenotypic plasticity indices. The lack ofrelationship between the traits, in magnitude as well as significance, indicates that these characters are controlled by different genegroups. Consequently, simultaneous selection for both nutrient use efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress is possible, if themechanisms that confer efficiency and tolerance are not competitive.