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Whole‐plant and organ‐level nitrogen isotope discrimination indicates modification of partitioning of assimilation, fluxes and allocation of nitrogen in knockout lines of Arabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
Kalcsits Lee A.,
Guy Robert D.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/ppl.12038
Subject(s) - nitrogen assimilation , nitrate reductase , assimilation (phonology) , nitrogen , arabidopsis thaliana , botany , mutant , nitrate , nitrogen cycle , arabidopsis , isotopes of nitrogen , biology , chemistry , horticulture , biochemistry , ecology , gene , philosophy , linguistics , organic chemistry
The nitrogen isotope composition ( δ 15 N ) of plants has potential to provide time‐integrated information on nitrogen uptake, assimilation and allocation. Here, we take advantage of existing T‐ DNA and γ ‐ray mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana to modify whole‐plant and organ‐level nitrogen isotope composition. Nitrate reductase 2 ( nia2 ), nitrate reductase 1 ( nia1 ) and nitrate transporter ( nrt2 ) mutant lines and the Col‐0 wild type were grown hydroponically under steady‐state NO 3 – conditions at either 100 or 1000 μ M NO 3 – for 35 days. There were no significant effects on whole‐plant discrimination and growth in the assimilatory mutants ( nia2 and nia1 ). Pronounced root vs leaf differences in δ 15 N , however, indicated that nia2 had an increased proportion of nitrogen assimilation of NO 3 – in leaves while nia1 had an increased proportion of assimilation in roots. These observations are consistent with reported ratios of nia1 and nia2 gene expression levels in leaves and roots. Greater whole‐plant discrimination in nrt2 indicated an increase in efflux of unassimilated NO 3 – back to the rooting medium. This phenotype was associated with an overall reduction in NO 3 – uptake, assimilation and decreased partitioning of NO 3 – assimilation to the leaves, presumably because of decreased symplastic intercellular movement of NO 3 – in the root. Although the results were more varied than expected, they are interpretable within the context of expected mechanisms of whole‐plant and organ‐level nitrogen isotope discrimination that indicate variation in nitrogen fluxes, assimilation and allocation between lines.