[Effects of water stress during grain-filling period on rice grain yield and its quality under different nitrogen levels].

To examine the effects of nitrogen (N) supply and water stress on rice grain yield and its quality, a pot experiment was conducted at Yangzhou University. Three rice cultivars were grown under two N levels (high N and normal N) from initial heading, and two water conditions (well watering and water stress) were installed for each of the two N levels from flowering to maturity. The results showed that when the plants of test cultivars were grown under normal N level, water stress markedly reduced the grain-filling percentage and grain weight, resulting in a significant decrease of grain yield by 11.6% to approximately 14.7%. Though the head-milled rice had a slight increase, the percentage of chalkiness was significantly increased by 18.7% to approximately 33.1%, which resulted in an inferior performance in grain-apparent quality. In contrast, when the plants were grown under high N level, water stress increased the grain yield by 18. 8% to approximately 22.2% because of the increase of grain-filling percentage and grain weight. As compared with well watering, water stress decreased the percentages of chalky grain and chalkiness by 15.3% to approximately 37.2% and 13.7% to 29.9%, respectively, which improved the performance of grain-apparent quality. The pronounced effects of N application and water treatment were observed on the RVA profile and cooked quality. Under both two N levels, water stress decreased the peak viscosity and breakdown (except for Yangdao 6) while increased the setback. According to the performance in the indices of cooked quality, the palatability became poor when subjected to water stress under normal N level, as the result of the increase of hardness and cohesiveness. In contrast, under high N level, water stress availed the ascending of viscosity at the early stage when rice flours were pasting, peak viscosity and breakdown were increased, and setback was decreased, suggesting that the palpability got well. It was concluded that mild water stress during grain-filling period was benefit for the development of high quality grain when rice plants were grown under high N level.