ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
This article is part of the Research TopicInterplay Between Plant Nutrient Uptake and Abiotic StressView all 7 articles
Overcoming Mn-induced Chlorosis in Sugarcane Seedlings by Iron
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangxi University State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro BioResources, Nanning, China
- 2University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, Ann Arbor, United States
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Manganese (Mn) toxicity induces severe seedling chlorosis and growth inhibition in sugarcane grown on acidic soils, yet the mechanisms driving seasonal recovery and practical mitigation strategies remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that foliar iron (Fe) deposition from rainwater mediates natural greening in chlorotic sugarcane. Field monitoring across 78 sites revealed a strong positive correlation between leaf chlorophyll content and foliar Fe content (r=0.82, p<0.01). Phenological observations showed that surviving seedlings progressively regained pigmentation, achieving complete visual recovery by late summer, with chlorophyll and Fe levels 11.1-and 4.4-fold higher, respectively, than spring baselines. Mechanistically, Fe counteracted Mn-induced biological Fe deficiency, restoring chlorophyll biosynthesis through enhanced 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthesis (2.3-fold increase) and Mg-protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester (MgPME) conversion (1.8-fold increase), while downregulating FLUORESCENT (60% reduction) and upregulating MgPME cyclase (3.1-fold increase). Hydroponic and field experiments confirmed that foliar application of Fe-enriched rainwater or ferric sulfateFeSO4 (0.5 g Fe L⁻¹) effectively reversed chlorosis, increasing leaf chlorophyll content 1.9-to 2.7-fold, number of surviving seedlings by 1.0-fold,, and cane yield by 1.7-fold under Mn toxicity. Notably, a single foliar FeFeSO4 spray (0.5-1.5 g Fe L⁻¹) provided sustained benefits, requiring far lower inputs (7.5-22.5 g Fe ha⁻¹) than soil amendments. Our findings establishindicate that rainwater Fe as a key driver ofcontributes to the seasonal recovery from Mn-induced chlorosis and proposethat foliar Fe supplementation aspresents a scalable, and effective solutionstrategy for alleviating Mn -toxicity in sugarcane.
Keywords: greening, iron nutrition, Mn-induced chlorosis, strategies, sugarcane
Received: 04 Nov 2025; Accepted: 22 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Ling and Yang. 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: Shu Yang
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