The effect of cobalt stress on growth and physiological traits and its association with cobalt accumulation in barley genotypes differing in cobalt tolerance

Cobalt (Co) is beneficial for legume plants and not an essential element for most plants. There is no sufficient information about the effect of Co stress on barley growth. The current experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of different Co levels (25, 50, 75, and 100 µM) on growth and physiological traits of three barley genotypes (B325, J36, and B340) differing in Co tolerance. The results showed that Co stress inhibited plant growth, decreased chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate, and enhanced oxidative stress. However, the effects differed among genotypes, with B325 and B340 being the most and the least affected, respectively. Co stress caused decrease and increase of manganese (Mn) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in both roots and shoots, respectively; iron (Fe) concentration had little change in shoots and a significant decrease in roots. The current results showed a close association of Co tolerance and its accumulation in plant tissues.     

Effect of Phosphorus and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) Inoculation on Growth and Productivity of Maize (Zea mays L.) in a Tropical Ferralsol

Soil fertility in the Lubumbashi region often proves to be limiting factor for crop production due to their low nutrient reserves. The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of arbuscular mycorrhizae on phosphorus uptake by maize on Ferralsol. The trial was conducted in pots with 30?kg or 60?kg of P₂O₅ ha^?1 and a control. These three levels of phosphorus were combined or not with arbuscular mycorrhizae. The combinations of 30?kg or 60?kg of phosphorus with the inoculum led to a male flowering of maize at 63 days after semi. Maize treated with 60?kg of phosphorus ha^?1 formed very few or almost no blisters in the roots. Cob weight, length, diameter, number of rows and kernel weight varied significantly with phosphorus on both inoculated and uninoculated pots. The inoculated plants had high averages for these yield parameters. Due to the lack of phosphate fertilizer, inoculum alone can be an alternative to phosphorus provided that nitrogen and potassium are added, resulting in small but seed-filled ears compared to the phosphorus-free control without mycorrhizae, which resulted in empty ears. Yield varied significantly with the addition of phosphorus (0.3 to 6.1 tons ha^?1) and less significantly with inoculum (3 to 3.7?t ha^?1). The combination of treatments showed a significant difference in favour of the 60?kg of phosphorus or 60?kg of phosphorus associated with the inoculum. The highest phosphorus content was obtained on the inoculum treatment alone, which provided 1.4?mg phosphorus?g^?1 maize compared to other treatments, which provided 0.69 to 0.71?mg phosphorus?g^?1 maize.