Differences of Nitrogen Status between Different N-Uptake-Efficiency Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Cultivars
A pot experiment was conducted to test nitrogen (N) uptake efficiency (NUE) of 50 rapeseed cultivars at two N application levels. The differences of N status indexes between high-nitrogen-efficiency-genotype (HNEG) and low-nitrogen-effi-ciency- genotype (LNEG) were analyzed. The results showed that N status varied dramatically among different genotypes. The greatest variance was found on N accumulation in root and ratio of N accumulation in root to total N uptake (>50%) while the least variance was found on N content of ahoveground part of rapeseed during vegetative stage. At both N application levels, HNEG had significantly greater total N uptake and N accumulation in different parts of plant than LNEG. The maximum difference of N accumulation was found in root between HNEG and LNEG while the minimum difference of N accumulation was found in silique husk. The ratio of N accumulation in root to total N uptake for HNEG was higher than that for LNEG The ratio of N accumulation in silique to total N uptake was higher for LNEG than for HNEG During vegetative stage, no significant difference of N content of aboveground parts was found between HNEG and LNEG However, HNEG had remarkable higher N accumulation in aboveground parts and higher SPAD value of leaves than LNEG Changes of N supply level led to the greater changes of N content, N accumulation and the ratio of N accumulation in any part to total N uptake for HNEG than those for LNEG. Significant differences of nitrogen status between different rapeseed cultivars provide a basis to create new crop varieties for increase nitrogen use efficiency.