Preliminary study on the diagnosis of NK stress based on the puncture mechanical characteristics of cucumber stem.

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between stem puncture mechanical characteristics and NK stress diagnosis, the microstructure, surface morphology, cellulose and lignin content, puncture mechanical characteristics, and epidermal cell morphology of cucumber stems were measured herein. The results indicated that the middle stem, which had a diameter of approximately 7000 μm, was more suitable for puncturing due to its lower amount of epidermal hair, and its gradual regularity in shape. Further, the cucumber stems were protected from puncture damage due to their ability to rapidly heal within 25 h.. The epidermal penetration of the cucumber stems increased with the increase in cellulose and lignin, though cellulose played a more decisive role. The epidermal break distance increased with an increase in N application and decreased with an increase in K + application, but the change in intercellular space caused by K + supply was the most critical factor affecting the epidermal break distance. In addition, a decrease in K + concentration led to a decrease in epidermal brittleness, whereas the factors affecting epidermal toughness were more complex. Finally, we found that although the detection of epidermal brittleness and toughness on nutrient stress was poor under certain treatment, the puncture mechanical characteristics of the stem still had a significant indicative effect on N application rate. Therefore, elucidating of the relationship between the puncture mechanical characteristics of the stems and crop nutritional stress is not only beneficial for promoting stem stress physiology research but also for designing on-site nutritional testing equipment in the future.

Plant phenotyping relevance

キュウリ茎の穿刺力学特性を用いた栄養ストレス診断を主題とし、測定部位の適性、診断性能、栄養条件との関係を評価しているため、植物表現型取得法の応用・検証に該当する。

Code and data availability

The paper reports cucumber stem puncture mechanical measurements, microscopy, and AFM data, but no public dataset, code, or image repository is provided. The availability statement says data are available only from the corresponding author on reasonable request, so any qualifying asset requires contacting the authors.

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