ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysiological Growth of Crops in Saline-Alkali Land and Its New Quality Productive Control MethodsView all 9 articles
Mechanism for efficient nitrogen utilization by peach rootstock GF677 (Prunus amygdalus × Prunus persica) in alkaline orchard soils
Provisionally accepted
Haiyan Song1
Zhao Ke1
Qiang Wang2Guoliang Jiang1Shuxia Sun1Jing Li1Meiyan Tu1Lingli Wang1Chengyong He1Tie Wang1Dong Chen1*- 1Horticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, China
- 2Chengdu Agricultural Technology Extension Station, chengdu, China
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GF677 is a widely used peach rootstock with resistance to chlorosis and continuous-cropping disease. Peach varieties grafted onto GF677 generally exhibit larger leaf area and deep green foliage in alkaline soils, demonstrating a higher nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE) than other rootstocks. To elucidate the mechanism for the higher NUE of GF677, we grafted four peach varieties onto either GF677 or peach (Prunus persica, the control rootstock) in alkaline soils. The results revealed that grafting of peach varieties onto GF677 resulted in larger leaf area and significantly higher total nitrogen content than grafting onto the control rootstock. Comparative transcriptomic analysis and WGCNA showed that the grafting onto GF677 significantly up-regulated 13 genes related to nitrogen uptake, transport, and reuse, while grafting onto the control rootstock up-regulated two monothiol glutaredoxin-encoding genes, in the leaves of different peach varieties. RT-qPCR further confirmed that four genes, including PpNRT1, PpNRT4, PpGLDH, and PpGRF9, may play crucial roles in the nitrogen utilization of GF677. Additionally, PpMGrx2 may play an important role in the response of peach (Prunus persica) to alkaline stress. This study elucidates the mechanism underlying the efficient nitrogen utilization of GF677, providing an important basis for the application and improvement of peach rootstock varieties.
Keywords: Nitrogen utilization, Peach rootstock, GF677, Alkaline soil, WGCNA
Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Ke, Wang, Jiang, Sun, Li, Tu, Wang, He, Wang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dong Chen, chendong@scsaas.cn
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