Effect Of Strigalactone On Growth And Development Of Tomato Lateral Branch

Tomato(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), as one of the most important vegetables cultivated in China, has the advantages of high yield and economic income, which plays an important role in promoting input farmers and development of social economy. As tomato has strong growth potential, the lateral buds of each side can germinate and grow into branches and at last develop to blossom and fruit. The tomato plants often grow more lateral branches especially after pinching due to the changes of nutrient distribution. The growth and development of tomato lateral branch waste lots of nutrient, result in the reduction of tomato yield. Therefore, the farmers have to cut the all lateral branches during the process of tomato’s growth. This work wastes a lot of time and effort which cause the increase of tomato cultivation cost. Therefore, it becomes a concern problem about how to reduce the labor intensity and production cost by inhibiting the growth and development of tomato lateral branches.Strigolactone is a kind of sesquiterpene compound composed with isoprenoid. Recent studies have demonstrated that strigolactone as a new type of plant hormones regulates the branches growth and develop of arabidopsis, pea, rice and petunia by cooperatig with auxin and cytokinin. However, there is little research about the effect of strigalactone on the growth and development of tomato lateral branch. Therefore, this experiment investigated the effect of strigalactone on growth and development lateral branch using the tomato as the materials, treated with different concentration strigalactone by smear, injection, soaking seeds, root immersion methods. This experiment aimed to explore the technological method of inhibiting growth and development of tomato lateral branch, as well as selecting the appropriate concentration and treated method. The result of this research will provided the theoretical basis for the application of strigalactone in agricultural production and saving the labor in tomato cultivation.The main results are as follows:1.When tomato(varieties: Zhongza No.9 and Aiji 112) grew to the height of 30~50 cm, the experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different strigalactone concentration(0~20000 nmol?L-1) on the growth and development of tomato lateral branch treated with smear method. The results showed that smear strigalactone at the position of lateral branch inhibited its growth and development; however the effect is different treated with different strigalactone concentration. Among them, the inhibiting effect was the best treated wtih 7500 nmol?L-1 strigalactone. As a result, the first lateral branch was total inhibited, the second lateral branch growth was significantly inhibited and shortened 55.4% compared with control plant.2.When tomato(varieties: Zhongza No.9 and Aiji 112) grew to the height of 30~50 cm, the experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different strigalactone concentration(0~20000 nmol?L-1) on the growth and development of tomato lateral branch treated with injection method. The result showed that injection Strigalactone at the position of lateral branch inhibited its growth and development; however the effect is different treated with different strigalactone concentration. Among them, the inhibiting effect was the best treated wtih 2500 nmol?L-1 strigalactone. As a result, the first lateral branch was total inhibited, the second lateral branch growth was significantly inhibited and shortened 37.1% compared with control plant.3.The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different strigalactone concentration(0~10000 nmol?L-1) on the growth and development of tomato lateral branch treated with soaking seed method. The result showed that soaking seed with strigalactone inhibited the growth and development of tomato lateral branch. Among them, the inhibiting effect was the best treated wtih 5000nmol·L-1 strigalactone. As a result, four lateral branches were significantly inhibited and shortened 89.4%, 57.2%, 69.7%, 51.1% compared with the control plant.4.The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different strigalactone concentration(7500~20000 nmol?L-1) on the growth and development of tomato lateral branch treated with root immersion method. The result showed that root immersion with strigalactone inhibited the growth and development of tomato lateral branch. Among them, the inhibiting effect was the best treated wtih 10000 nmol·L-1 strigalactone. As a result, two lateral branches were total inhibited, four lateral branches were significantly inhibited and shortened 78.2%, 85.3%, 65.9%, 93.9% compared with the control plant.5.The result showed that the effect of root immersion with strigalactone is the better than others by compared with four different treatment methods..The results showed that the growth of tomato lateral branch could be inhibited by using different treatments, in which the effect was better with root immersion treatment with strigalactone. Therefore, the method of root immersion with 5000 nmol?L-1 strigalactone before seedlings transplant can be used to inhibited growth and development of lateral branches in tomato production. However, there still exist some problems about inhibiting the growth and development of tomato lateral branch, such the inhibited branch number, the concentrtion effect of strigalactone, etc. So,it needs further research about how to completely inhibit the growth and development of tomato lateral branch remains further research.