Nitrogen signaling and use efficiency in plants: what's new?

• Published in: Current opinion in plant biology Vol. 27; pp. 192 - 198
• Main Authors: Liu, Qian, Chen, Xiangbin, Wu, Kun, Fu, Xiangdong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2015
• Subjects: crop yield; environmental impact; fertilizer analysis; fertilizer rates; nitrogen; Nitrogen - metabolism; nitrogen fertilizers; nutrient use efficiency; plant growth; Plant Physiological Phenomena; quantitative trait loci; Signal Transduction; soil; sustainable agriculture
• ISSN: 1369-5266; 1879-0356; 1879-0356
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2015.08.002

•ABI2 enhances NPF6.3-dependent nitrate sensing and uptake via dephosphorylation of CBL1 and CIPK23.•A phosphatase 2C protein ABI1 regulates the crosstalk between the carbon–nitrogen response and non-canonical abscisic acid signaling.•Plants sense and respond to changes in nitrate availability using a long-distance root-to-shoot peptide signaling.•The modulation of heterotrimeric G proteins improves nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in rice. Crop productivity is heavily dependent on the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizers. Increasing N fertilization levels, however, are subject to diminishing returns, quite apart from their deleterious impact on the environment. Improving N use efficiency (NUE) is therefore crucial for development of sustainable agriculture. Plant NUE is a complex trait determined by quantitative trait loci and influenced by environmental changes. The natural supply of soil N varies and is frequently limiting for plant growth and crop yield: unraveling the molecular basis of how plants sense and respond to changes in N availability should enable the development of new strategies to increase NUE. This review discusses the latest advances in our understanding of N signaling and crosstalk with other signaling pathways.