1. BB ID card MATERIALS AND METHODS
SUSTAINABLE IRON NUTRITION: PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO A BOVINE BLOOD-DERIVED COMPOUND IN CUCUMBER AND TOMATO PLANTS M. Di Foggia1, F. Yunta2, A. Tinti3, S. Bonora3, C. Martin4, A. D. Rombolà1, J. J. Lucena4
1 Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, viale Fanin 46, Bologna Italy.
2 Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of Madrid, calle Francisco Tomás y Valiente 7, Madrid Spain.
3 Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, via Belmeloro 8/2, Bologna, Italy.
4 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of Madrid, calle Francisco Tomás y Valiente 7, Madrid Spain.
The environmental consequences of chemical fertilization suggest the adoption of alternative strategies for managing iron (Fe) nutrition in vineyards and orchards, according to soil and plants parameters able to improve the efficiency of Fe acquisition. Moreover, some key aspects for sustainable agriculture should be considered: pollution control, minimization of environmental impacts and the re­utilization of organic materials to reduce the inputs for production (sub products from agro industries eg. animal blood-derived fertilizers, etc.). Blood meal is a natural Fe source containing 20–30 gFe/kg, contained in the heme group of the hemoglobin molecule.
A new powder formulation obtained from bovine blood (BB) was tested on crops susceptible to Fe chlorosis to assess its effectiveness and Fe-uptake mechanism in comparison with two synthetic Fe-chelates fertilizers (Fe-EDTA and Fe-o,oEDDHA).
BB ID card
ORIGIN
Bovine Blood of food grade
PRODUCTION
Enzymatic treatment generating a proteo-porfirinic complex
PHYSICAL FORM
Powder
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES [2]
High content of Fe: 5000 mg·Kg-1
High content of N: 120 g·Kg-1
Spectroscopical similarities with Hemin (porphyrin core)
High chemical and thermal stability
FCR activity was measured on cucumber plants grown for 2 weeks with 5 μM Fe in hydroponics, that was found to be the most adequate to produce green (non-chlorotic) cucumber plants displaying a high FCR activity[1]. The FCR activity was measured at pH 7.5. At this pH value BB is highly soluble whereas FCR activity is relatively low. 100 μM Fe from the three different sources:
- Fe-o,oEDDHA,
- Fe-EDTA,
- BB
In order to measure the non-enzymatic contribution to Fe complexation (i.e. due to reducing phenolic compounds excreted by roots), 3 pairs of plants for each treatment were placed in containers for 2 hours, then removed and analyzed with the same timing of the reductase experiment.
FCR-assay
Total Fe reduction
Enzymatic Fe reduction
Non Enzymatic Fe reduction
MATERIALS AND METHODS
SPECIES
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus cv Ashley)
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv Cerasiforme)
CULTURE CONDITIONS
Hydroponic solutions with different Fe sources (10 mM):
Synthetic iron chelates (o,oFe-EDDHA or Fe-EDTA)
Bovine blood-derived fertilizer (BB)
MEASUREMENTS
SPAD index
Fresh and dry weight of different plant organs
Root reductase activity (FCR) assay
Figure 1: Two-weeks Fe-deficient cucumber plants before for the FCR assay.
8° node
Tomato
Node 8
Node 7
Node 2
Node 1
Cucumber
All leaves
Mature leaves
Young leaves
Table 2 (sx): SPAD indexes of cucumber plants. Different letters indicate significant differences among treatments in a post-hoc SNK Test at P<0.05.
7° node a a a b
2° node c
1° node b
Table 1: Root Fe-reduction activity (of enzymatic and non enzymatic origin) in Fe-deficient cucumber plants after 1 and 2 h from the imposition of different Fe treatments.
SPAD
index a a
Figure 2: Control (-Fe) tomato plants after 14 DAT. a b
TOMATO
Treatments
FW/g
Root
Stem
Leaves
Single leaf
Control
5.13
6.85
7.73
0.53
EDDHA
4.15
4.92
9.17
0.76
EDTA
4.02
5.04
8.44
0.55 BB
4.42
4.71
10.18
0.58
Significance ns
CUCUMBER
1.02 b
0.63
1.28
0.38
2.91 a
0.94
3.28
0.62
2.44 ab
2.74
0.56
1.53 ab
0.77
2.25
0.46 * b c
Physiological
parameters a a a a a b b b
Table 4: Fresh weights of different plan organs.Different letters indicate significant differences among treatments in a post-hoc SNK Test at P<0.05.
Figure 3: Cucumber plants with different Fe treatments (after 7 days):
a) Control (-Fe)
b) EDDHA
c) EDTA
d) BB a
The bovine blood-derived fertilizer showed a good efficiency against Fe-deficiency symptoms, similar to synthetic Fe chelates.
This formulation could be used to alleviate Fe chlorosis in organic farming. a a a b b
Table 3: SPAD indexes of tomato plants at different levels. Different letters indicate significant differences among treatments in a post-hoc SNK Test at P<0.05. c d
Bibliography:
[1] Lucena JJ, Chaney R (2006) . J Plant Nutr 29:423–439.
[2] Yunta F, Di Foggia M, Bellido-Diaz V, Morales-Calderon M, Tessarin P, Lopez-Rayo S, Tinti A, Kovacs K, Fodor F, Rombolà AD (2013). J Agric Food Chem 61: