摘要

Soil acidification due to excess use of nitrogen fertilisers in Chinese greenhouses is threatening the vegetable production through aluminum (Al) toxicity and low pH stress. We examined the changes in N assimilation in cucumber seedlings (Cucumis sativus L. cv. LuMing No. 1) under Al toxicity and H+ stress in presence/absence of 24-epibrassinolide (EBL), a potent allelochemical. Al toxicity suppressed the activities of nitrate reductase (NR), glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) but not glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), causing the accumulation of nitrate (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+) in plants and reducing the shoot dry weight, root dry weight and plants height. H+ stress did not affect the plant growth but slightly altered the N assimilation pathway with significant increase in NR and GS/GOGAT activity and drastic decline in GDH activity. The spray of EBL on plant shoots, overcame the growth inhibition of Al toxicity through elevating the antioxidant capacity and enhancing the N assimilation enzymes, but had no effect on N assimilation in plants subjected to H+ stress. In acidic soils, Al3+ stress instead of H+ stress significantly suppressed the nitrogen assimilation by vegetable crops and exogenous EBL alleviated the adverse effects of Al toxicity on nitrogen assimilation.