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Concentration‐dependent physiological and transcriptional adaptations of wheat seedlings to ammonium
Author(s) -
Ijato Toyosi,
PorrasMurillo Romano,
Ganz Pascal,
Ludewig Uwe,
Neuhäuser Benjamin
Publication year - 2021
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.13113
Subject(s) - ammonium , biology , botany , adaptation (eye) , chemistry , neuroscience , organic chemistry
Conventional wheat production utilizes fertilizers of various nitrogen forms. Sole ammonium nutrition has been shown to improve grain quality, despite the potential toxic effects of ammonium at elevated concentrations. We therefore investigated the responses of young seedlings of winter wheat to different nitrogen sources (NH 4 NO 3 = NN, NH 4 Cl = NNH 4 + and KNO 3 = NNO 3 − ). Growth with ammonium‐nitrate was superior. However, an elevated concentration of sole ammonium caused severe toxicity symptoms and significant decreases in biomass accumulation. We addressed the molecular background of the ammonium uptake by gathering an overview of the ammonium transporter (AMT) of wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) and characterized the putative high‐affinity TaAMT1 transporters. TaAMT1;1 and TaAMT1;2 were both active in yeast and Xenopus laevis oocytes and showed saturating high‐affinity ammonium transport characteristics. Interestingly, nitrogen starvation, as well as ammonium resupply to starved seedlings triggered an increase in the expression of the TaAMT1s. The presence of nitrate seamlessly repressed their expression. We conclude that wheat showed the ability to respond robustly to sole ammonium supply by adopting distinct physiological and transcriptional responses.