Nutritional significance of sulphur in pulse cropping system

Abstract

Sulphur is a part of every living cell and is a constituent of two of the 21 amino acids which form proteins. Of all the macronutrients, sulphur is perhaps the nutrient which has attracted the most attention in soil science and plant nutrition due to its potential defensive characteristics to pests, good nutritive potentiality to crops and its relative immobility in the soil-plant system. The benefits from sulphur fertilisation of crops can be traced to its role in protein development, to improvement of nitrogen use, etc. However, the availability of sulphur needed for profitable crop production continues to decline. This review highlights the prominent role of microbes in sulphur availability to crop plants as well as includes the mechanism of its uptake, translocation and assimilation. Moreover, it provides new insights leading us to revisit the hypothesis of sulphur significance in pulse cropping and regulatory mechanisms in sulphur assimilation.