Response of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) to Different Levels and Time of Phosphogypsum Nutrition

Background: Groundnut is one of the most important oilseed crops of India. Improving productivity of groundnut to meet the domestic vegetable oil demand through balanced fertilization is the prime challenge lying before the agronomists in the country. With the aim of evaluating phosphogypsum as a source of sulphur nutrition in groundnut, a field experiment entitled “Response of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) to different levels and time of phosphogypsum nutrition” was conducted at Agronomy field unit, University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore, during kharif-2019. Methods: Experiment was laid out in randomised complete block design (RCBD) with eleven treatments, of which eight have different combinations of phosphogypsum applied as basal and in split (30 DAS) and one with gypsum as basal alone. Whereas, the remaining two treatments, without any additional source of sulphur are included for comparison. Result: Among eleven treatments, application of phosphogypsum @ 125 kg S eq ha-1 in split recorded highest yield attributes, pod yield (2063 kg ha-1), kernel yield (1418 kg ha-1) and sulphur uptake (11.33 kg ha-1). Which were on par with 100 kg S eq ha-1 in split (2014, 1380 and 10.39 kg ha-1, respectively). All other treatments recorded lower values with lowest in treatments without any additional sulphur source.

Revisiting Sulphur—The Once Neglected Nutrient: It’s Roles in Plant Growth, Metabolism, Stress Tolerance and Crop Production

Sulphur plays crucial roles in plant growth and development, with its functions ranging from being a structural constituent of macro-biomolecules to modulating several physiological processes and tolerance to abiotic stresses. In spite of these numerous sulphur roles being well acknowledged, agriculture has paid scant regard for sulphur nutrition, until only recently. Serious problems related to soil sulphur deficiencies have emerged and the intensification of food, fiber, and animal production is escalating to feed the ever-increasing human population. In the wake of huge demand for high quality cereal and vegetable diets, sulphur can play a key role in augmenting the production, productivity, and quality of crops. Additionally, in light of the emerging problems of soil fertility exhaustion and climate change-exacerbated environmental stresses, sulphur assumes special importance in crop production, particularly under intensively cropped areas. Here, citing several relevant examples, we highlight, in addition to its plant biological and metabolism functions, how sulphur can significantly enhance crop productivity and quality, as well as acclimation to abiotic stresses. By this appraisal, we also aim to stimulate readers interests in crop sulphur research by providing priorities for future pursuance, including bettering our understanding of the molecular processes and dynamics of sulphur availability and utilization in plants, dissecting the role of soil rhizospherical microbes in plant sulphur transformations, enhancing plant phenotyping and diagnosis for nutrient deficiencies, and matching site-specific crop sulphur demands with fertilizer amendments in order to reduce nutrient use inefficiencies in both crop and livestock production systems. This will facilitate the proper utilization of sulphur in crop production and eventually enhance sustainable and environmentally friend food production.

Yield, nutrient uptake and quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum) under nitrogen and sulphur nutrition in alluvial soil

A 2-year field experiment was conducted at Panwari village of Agra district (U.P.) during rabi season of 2015-16 and 2016-17 to study the response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L) to different levels of nitrogen and sulphur. Four levels each of nitrogen (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg ha-1) and sulphur (0, 10, 20 and 30 kg ha-1) were evaluated in randomized block design with three replications. The results revealed that the application of 120 kg N ha-1 recorded the significantly highest plant height (92.1 cm) and test weight (40.9 g). The highest yields of grain (5.57t ha -1 ) and straw (6.86t ha-1) were recorded with 120 kg N ha-1 and the grain and straw yield increments were to the extent of 44.6 and 42.6%, respectively. The sulphur level of 30 kg ha-1 recorded the highest grain (5.13t ha-1) and straw (6.36t ha-1) yield being statistically at par with 20 kg S ha-1 but significantly higher than 10 kg S ha-1. The results indicated the superiority of combined use of N and S in improving the productivity of wheat to compared to application of N alone. The content and yield of protein were also increased with N application and maximum values were recorded with 120 kg N ha-1. There was a significant increase in protein content and yield of wheat grain and maximum values were recorded with 30 kg S ha-1. A phenomenal increase in N, P and S uptake by wheat grain and straw was recorded due to increasing levels of N and S up to 120 kg and 30 kg ha-1, respectively. The available N and S reduced in the control plot in post harvest soil over their initial values. The higher values of available N (222.5 kg ha-1) and S (19.4 kg ha-1) were recorded with 120 kg N ha-1 and 30 kg S ha-1, respectively.

Importance of Legumes and Role of Sulphur Oxidizing Bacteria for Their Production: A Review

Background: Legumes are relatively cheap, non-animal good source of valuable proteins, micro-nutrients and vitamins in human and animal nutrition for many years. Recognizing the potential of legumes in achieving the sustainable solution to the global food security, protein access, eradicate hunger and malnutrition, FAO of the United Nations (The Food and Agriculture Organization), facilitated 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) under the banner ‘nutritious seeds for a sustainable future’. The nutrient, nitrogen and biological nitrogen fixation is very crucial for legume’s growth, besides sulphur deficiency is very sensitive to the nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Despite the amazing beneficial properties, legumes are neglected by most of us due to having tough competition with low price and high yielding cereal varieties. Methods: Therefore keeping in mind the above points, this review discusses the importance and application of legumes in different perspectives, legume cultivation patterns, importance of sulphur nutrition to legumes, role of sulphur oxidizing bacteria in sulphur nutrition, improving soil and environment, challenges and future of legumes. Conclusion: Legumes have variety of applications including food, health, environment and many other sectors but we are not able to produce enough amount according to their genetic potential due to inefficient breeding programs. Sulphur is an important nutrient along with N effecting its growth and yield. Sulphur oxidizing bacteria (SOB) have been proved as an important tool for improving yield and symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes. Therefor application of biofertilizers along with SOB and improved genetic breeding programmes may prove leading steps to enhance their production.

Effect of Sulphur Nutrition in Groundnut: A Review

Suphur plays a vital role in the development of seed and improving oil quality. Groundnut is rich in oils and protein hence sulphur requirement for this crop is substantially high. Sulphur levels from 20 to 70 kg ha-1 were tried in groundnut among which higher level of sulphur @ 60 kg ha-1 has recorded taller plants, higher leaf area index, dry matter production pod number, pod yield and oil quality in groundnut. Gypsum application at 400 kg ha-1 (200 kg as basal and remaining 200 kg ha-1 during earthing up) has increased the pod yield, oil content and oil yield in groundnut.

Autophagy Controls Sulphur Metabolism in the Rosette Leaves of Arabidopsis and Facilitates S Remobilization to the Seeds

Sulphur deficiency in crops became an agricultural concern several decades ago, due to the decrease of S deposition and the atmospheric sulphur dioxide emissions released by industrial plants. Autophagy, which is a conserved mechanism for nutrient recycling in eukaryotes, is involved in nitrogen, iron, zinc and manganese remobilizations from the rosette to the seeds in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we have compared the role of autophagy in sulphur and nitrogen management at the whole plant level, performing concurrent labelling with 34S and 15N isotopes on atg5 mutants and control lines. We show that both 34S and 15N remobilizations from the rosette to the seeds are impaired in the atg5 mutants irrespective of salicylic acid accumulation and of sulphur nutrition. The comparison in each genotype of the partitions of 15N and 34S in the seeds (as % of the whole plant) indicates that the remobilization of 34S to the seeds was twice more efficient than that of 15N in both autophagy mutants and control lines under high S conditions, and also in control lines under low S conditions. This was different in the autophagy mutants grown under low S conditions. Under low S, the partition of 34S to their seeds was indeed not twice as high but similar to that of 15N. Such discrepancy shows that when sulphate availability is scarce, autophagy mutants display stronger defects for 34S remobilization relative to 15N remobilization than under high S conditions. It suggests, moreover, that autophagy mainly affects the transport of N-poor S-containing molecules and possibly sulphate.

Plant sulphur metabolism is stimulated by photorespiration

Intense efforts have been devoted to describe the biochemical pathway of plant sulphur (S) assimilation from sulphate. However, essential information on metabolic regulation of S assimilation is still lacking, such as possible interactions between S assimilation, photosynthesis and photorespiration. In particular, does S assimilation scale with photosynthesis thus ensuring sufficient S provision for amino acids synthesis? This lack of knowledge is problematic because optimization of photosynthesis is a common target of crop breeding and furthermore, photosynthesis is stimulated by the inexorable increase in atmospheric CO2. Here, we used high-resolution 33S and 13C tracing technology with NMR and LC-MS to access direct measurement of metabolic fluxes in S assimilation, when photosynthesis and photorespiration are varied via the gaseous composition of the atmosphere (CO2, O2). We show that S assimilation is stimulated by photorespiratory metabolism and therefore, large photosynthetic fluxes appear to be detrimental to plant cell sulphur nutrition.