Screening of Tobacco Genotypes Tolerant to Low-Nitrogen and Their Nitrogen Efficiency Types
Genotypes with tolerance to low nitrogen (N) are preferred in improving N use efficiency of tobacco and reduce nitro-gen pollution. In this study, seedlings of 74 tobacco genotypes were evaluated in a hydroponic experiment with low-N (0.5 mmol L–1) and normal-N (5.0 mmol L–1) treatments, and the genotypes were evaluated according to descriptive statistics, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The root volume, root biomass, N accumulation in stalk and leaf, and aboveground biomass varied greatly across genotypes with the variation coefficients of 0.37–0.68 in low-N treatment and 0.38–0.64 in normal-N treatment. The prin-cipal components under both N levels were similar, showing that the N accumulation in stalk and leaf and aboveground biomass were important components. According to evaluation indexes Heatmap clustering and scatter diagram analysis of N efficiency comprehensive value, 15 low-N tolerant genotypes were screened out, accounting for 20.3% of varieties tested, including eight genotypes of high-efficiency under low-N but low-efficiency under normal-N, six genotypes of low-efficiency under both low-N and normal-N, and one genotype of high-efficiency under both low-N and normal-N. In addition, eight genotypes were found to be sensitive to low-N, including six genotypes of low-efficiency under low-N but high-efficiency under normal-N and two geno-types of low-efficiency under both low-N and normal-N. We primarily identified 14P9 as the low-N tolerant and N-efficient to-bacco and Zhongyan 100 and K394 as the low-N sensitive and N-inefficient tobacco.