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Abstract
The effect of phosphorus (P) starvation on ammonium (NH4) uptake was evaluated by growing single‐cross seedlings of the male progenitor of the maize double‐cross hybrid BR 201 in nutrient solution. The kinetics of NH4 uptake were measured after P starvation and non‐starvation periods of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 days. The effect of P addition during the study period (resupply) was also tested. Ammonium uptake decreased 45.7% after two days of P stress compared to the fully P‐sufficient control. Ammonium uptake decreased 83.0% when P was withheld for 10 days. The decline in NH4 uptake was partially reversed when P was resupplied during the early periods of P deficiency, but this effect diminished as the P stress increased. These results suggest that maize plants are physiologically dependent on NH4 rather than nitrate (NO3) when under P stress.
Notes
Corresponding author (e‐mail address: [email protected]).
This research was supported by the Maize and Sorghum Research Center, EMBRAPA, and by a scholarship from CNPq‐Brazil.