Photosynthetica 2020, 58(3):819-826 | DOI: 10.32615/ps.2020.021

Effect of chitin and chitosan hexamers on growth and photosynthetic characteristics of wheat seedlings

K.C. LI1,2, X.Q. ZHANG1,3, Y. YU5, R.E. XING1,2, S. LIU1, P.C. LI1,2
1 Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 266071 Qingdao, China
2 Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, 266237 Qingdao, China School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, 315211 Ningbo, China3 (current address)
5 Marine Science and Engineering College, Qingdao Agricultural University, 266109 Qingdao, China

In this study, two homogeneous chitin and chitosan hexamers and one partially acetylated chitosan hexamer were used to investigate the degree of acetylation (DA) effects of chitooligosaccharides on the growth and photosynthesis of wheat seedlings. Both chitin and chitosan hexamers showed a significant promoting effect on the growth and photosynthesis of wheat seedlings but the positive effect depended on their DA. The homogeneous chitosan hexamers [(GlcN)6] exhibited the optimal activity compared to other samples. Seven days after (GlcN)6 treatment, the growth parameters of wheat seedlings were all significantly enhanced including fresh mass, dry mass, and length of both shoots and roots, and the contents of soluble sugar were increased by 22.8%. Additionally, (GlcN)6 could significantly promote (by 90.0%) the photosynthetic rate of wheat seedlings. Both Rubisco and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase activity of photosynthetic carbon metabolism was also found to be significantly improved by (GlcN)6 treatment.

Additional key words: biostimulator; chitohexaose; partial acetylation; plant growth promotion; structure-function relationship.

Received: September 16, 2019; Revised: February 14, 2020; Accepted: February 28, 2020; Prepublished online: May 15, 2020; Published: June 11, 2020  Show citation

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LI, K.C., ZHANG, X.Q., YU, Y., XING, R.E., LIU, S., & LI, P.C. (2020). Effect of chitin and chitosan hexamers on growth and photosynthetic characteristics of wheat seedlings. Photosynthetica, 58(3), 819-826. doi: 10.32615/ps.2020.021
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