Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

EFFECTS OF SELENIUM ON THE GROWTH PARAMETERS OF
TOMATOES AND BASIL CROPS
Daniel Berstein 1 , Menahem Edelstein 2 , Meni Ben-Hur 3 , Moshe Shenker 1 , Hassan Azaizeh 4
1 Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food
and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel;
2 Department of Vegetable Crops, Neve Ya'ar Research Centre, Agricultural Research
Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel;
3 Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental, Sciences, Volcani Centre, Bet-Dagan, Israel;
4 Institute of Applied Research (Affiliated with University of Haifa), the Galilee Society
P.O. Box 437, Shefa-Amr 20200, Israel. e-mail: hazaizi@gal-soc.org
Keywords: Bioaccumulation, Basil, Micronutrients, Selenium uptake, Tomatoes.
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for mammalian nutrition; yet the margin
between its beneficial and harmful levels is quite narrow. Diet is the main selenium source
for humans and animals. Increasing tissue Se concentrations in edible crops through Se
fertilization strategies would improve the overall contribution of Se to the human diet.
However, it is not known if Se is a required element for plant growth, but it may inhibit
plant growth at various concentrations if accumulated in plant tissues. Anthropogenic Se
contamination of ground water was documented in the Jezreel Valley in Northern Israel. A
high content of Se (up to 37 µg L -1 ) caused the shutdown of two wells in the surrounding
area. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of Se concentration in water on the
development of tomatoes and basil. Plants were cultivated in greenhouse pots and irrigated
with water supplemented with Se 0.25-1.5 mgL -1 . The results showed that Se upto 1 mgL -1
didn’t affect tomatoes’ roots or shoot biomass; however, basil was inhibited by all Se
concentrations compared to the control group. The Se accumulation in roots, shoots, and
fruits was linear; however, in basil the accumulation showed a saturation curve. Tomatoes
plants are relatively resistant to Se compared to basil.