Selenium-biofortified broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck) is an important source of micronutrients in a healthy human diet. Therefore, studies are needed on the commercial production of selenium-enriched broccoli. We analyzed the effect of the foliar application of sodium selenate and sodium selenite in doses of 50 and 100 g ha⁻¹ on the growth, photosynthetic parameters, selenium accumulation, and commercial quality of broccoli in two cultivars (‘Belstar’ and ‘Legend’) used for fresh crops market grown under field conditions. The application of both doses of selenate and the highest dose of selenite induced a significant increase in the head fresh weight (FW) only in cultivar Belstar. However, the dry matter content of the heads was not significantly affected by selenium or the cultivar of broccoli. In addition, the increase in the water use efficiency, mainly due to the reduction of the transpiration rate, could explain the significant increase in the head FW without modifying the head dry matter content in Belstar. On the other hand, selenium treatments before harvest maintained the green color and did not affect the firmness and diameter of the heads at harvest. The selenium content of the heads increased markedly in a dose-dependent manner in both cultivars, with both selenium treatments. The results of this study indicate that the response to selenium treatments differs between broccoli cultivars and that the use of both selenium salts in foliar form would be a good strategy to obtain selenium-enriched broccoli, without affecting the commercial quality of the heads.

中文翻译：

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用硒改善西兰花的叶面生物强化，而不会损失商业质量

硒生物强化西兰花（Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck）是健康人类饮食中微量营养素的重要来源。因此，需要对富硒西兰花的商业化生产进行研究。我们分析了叶面施用 50 和 100 g ha ^-1剂量的硒酸钠和亚硒酸钠的效果对用于在田间条件下种植的新鲜作物市场的两种栽培品种（“Belstar”和“Legend”）的西兰花的生长、光合参数、硒积累和商业品质进行了研究。两种剂量的硒酸盐和最高剂量的亚硒酸盐的应用仅在品种 Belstar 中引起头部鲜重 (FW) 的显着增加。然而，硒或西兰花品种对头部的干物质含量没有显着影响。此外，水分利用效率的提高，主要是由于蒸腾速率的降低，可以解释水头 FW 的显着增加，而不改变 Belstar 的水头干物质含量。另一方面，收获前的硒处理保持了绿色，并且不影响收获时头部的硬度和直径。在两种硒处理下，两个品种的头部硒含量均以剂量依赖性方式显着增加。这项研究的结果表明，西兰花品种对硒处理的反应不同，并且以叶面形式使用两种硒盐将是获得富硒西兰花的好策略，同时不会影响花茎的商业质量。