Impact of low light intensity on biomass partitioning and genetic diversity in a chickpea mapping population.

With recent climatic changes, the reduced access to solar radiation has become an emerging threat to chickpeas' drought tolerance capacity under rainfed conditions. This study was conducted to assess, and understand the effects of reduced light intensity and quality on plant morphology, root development, and identifying resistant sources from a Sonali/PBA Slasher mapping population. We evaluated 180 genotypes, including recombinant inbred lines (RILs), parents, and commercial checks, using a split-block design with natural and low light treatments.

Arbuscular-Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Regulated by the Transcription Factor MtbHLHm1;1 and the Ammonium Facilitator Protein MtAMF1;3.

Root systems of most land plants are colonised by arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi. The symbiosis supports nutrient acquisition strategies predominantly associated with plant access to inorganic phosphate. The nutrient acquisition is enhanced through an extensive network of external fungal hyphae that extends out into the soil, together with the development of fungal structures forming specialised interfaces with root cortical cells.

The Metabolic Profile of Young, Watered Chickpea Plants Can Be Used as a Biomarker to Predict Seed Number under Terminal Drought.

Chickpea is the second-most-cultivated legume globally, with India and Australia being the two largest producers. In both of these locations, the crop is sown on residual summer soil moisture and left to grow on progressively depleting water content, finally maturing under terminal drought conditions. The metabolic profile of plants is commonly, correlatively associated with performance or stress responses, e.

Balancing nitrate acquisition strategies in symbiotic legumes.

Legumes manage both symbiotic (indirect) and non-symbiotic (direct) nitrogen acquisition pathways. Understanding and optimising the direct pathway for nitrate uptake will support greater legume growth and seed yields. Legumes have multiple pathways to acquire reduced nitrogen to grow and set seed.

Chickpea tolerance to temperature stress: Status and opportunity for improvement.

Chickpea is a globally important commercial crop and a key source of protein for vegetarian populations. Though chickpea was domesticated at least 3000 years ago, research into abiotic stress tolerance has been limited compared to cereal crops such as wheat. This review investigates the impacts of heat stress on chickpea, focusing on reproductive development.

Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency Through Overexpression of Alanine Aminotransferase in Rice, Wheat, and Barley.

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants, but crop plants are inefficient in the acquisition and utilization of applied nitrogen. This often results in producers over applying nitrogen fertilizers, which can negatively impact the environment. The development of crop plants with more efficient nitrogen usage is, therefore, an important research goal in achieving greater agricultural sustainability.

The preceding root system drives the composition and function of the rhizosphere microbiome.

Background: The soil environment is responsible for sustaining most terrestrial plant life, yet we know surprisingly little about the important functions carried out by diverse microbial communities in soil. Soil microbes that inhabit the channels of decaying root systems, the detritusphere, are likely to be essential for plant growth and health, as these channels are the preferred locations of new root growth. Understanding the microbial metagenome of the detritusphere, and how it responds to agricultural management such as crop rotations and soil tillage, is vital for improving global food production.

Effect of N supply on the carbon economy of barley when accounting for plant size.

Nitrogen availability and ontogeny both affect the relative growth rate (RGR) of plants. In this study of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) we determined which growth parameters are affected by nitrate (N) availability, and whether these were confounded by differences in plant size, reflecting differences in growth.

Tissue and nitrogen-linked expression profiles of ammonium and nitrate transporters in maize.

Background: In order to grow, plants rely on soil nutrients which can vary both spatially and temporally depending on the environment, the soil type or the microbial activity. An essential nutrient is nitrogen, which is mainly accessible as nitrate and ammonium. Many studies have investigated transport genes for these ions in Arabidopsis thaliana and recently in crop species, including Maize, Rice and Barley.

Unraveling the Functional Role of NPF6 Transporters.

The nitrate transporter 1/peptide transporter (NPF) family represents a growing list of putative nitrate permeable transport proteins expressed within multiple cell types and tissues across a diverse range of plant species. Their designation as nitrate permeable and/or selective transporters is slowly being defined as more genes are characterized and their functional activities tested both and . The most notable of the NPF family has been the homolog, , previously known as or .

Plant roots redesign the rhizosphere to alter the three-dimensional physical architecture and water dynamics.

The mechanisms controlling the genesis of rhizosheaths are not well understood, despite their importance in controlling the flux of nutrients and water from soil to root. Here, we examine the development of rhizosheaths from drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive chickpea varieties; focusing on the three-dimensional characterization of the pore volume (> 16 μm voxel spatial resolution) obtained from X-ray microtomography, along with the characterization of mucilage and root hairs, and water sorption. We observe that drought-tolerant plants generate a larger diameter root, and a greater and more porous mass of rhizosheath, which also has a significantly increased water sorptivity, as compared with bulk soil.

Root Ideotype Influences Nitrogen Transport and Assimilation in Maize.

Maize (, L.) yield is strongly influenced by external nitrogen inputs and their availability in the soil solution. Overuse of nitrogen-fertilizers can have detrimental ecological consequences through increased nitrogen pollution of water and the release of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.

A Comparison of Petiole Hydraulics and Aquaporin Expression in an Anisohydric and Isohydric Cultivar of Grapevine in Response to Water-Stress Induced Cavitation.

We report physiological, anatomical and molecular differences in two economically important grapevine ( L.) cultivars cv. Grenache (near-isohydric) and Chardonnay (anisohydric) in their response to water-stress induced cavitation.

Maize NPF6 Proteins Are Homologs of Arabidopsis CHL1 That Are Selective for Both Nitrate and Chloride.

Nitrate uptake by plant cells requires both high- and low-affinity transport activities. nitrate transporter 1/peptide transporter family (NPF) 6.3 is a dual-affinity plasma membrane transport protein that has both high- and low-affinity functions.

Neglecting legumes has compromised human health and sustainable food production.

The United Nations declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) under the banner 'nutritious seeds for a sustainable future'. A second green revolution is required to ensure food and nutritional security in the face of global climate change. Grain legumes provide an unparalleled solution to this problem because of their inherent capacity for symbiotic atmospheric nitrogen fixation, which provides economically sustainable advantages for farming.

The response of mesophyll conductance to nitrogen and water availability differs between wheat genotypes.

Increased mesophyll conductance (gm) has been suggested as a target for selection for high productivity and high water-use efficiency in crop plants, and genotypic variability in gm has been reported in several important crop species. However, effective selection requires an understanding of how gm varies with growth conditions, to ensure that the ranking of genotypes is consistent across environments. We assessed the genotypic variability in gm and other leaf gas exchange traits, as well as growth and biomass allocation for six wheat genotypes under different water and nitrogen availabilities.

Nitrogen assimilation system in maize is regulated by developmental and tissue-specific mechanisms.

We found metabolites, enzyme activities and enzyme transcript abundances vary significantly across the maize lifecycle, but weak correlation exists between the three groups. We identified putative genes regulating nitrate assimilation. Progress in improving nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) of crop plants has been hampered by the complexity of the N uptake and utilisation systems.

VAMP721a and VAMP721d are important for pectin dynamics and release of bacteria in soybean nodules.

In root nodules rhizobia enter host cells via infection threads. The release of bacteria to a host cell is possible from cell wall-free regions of the infection thread. We hypothesized that the VAMP721d and VAMP721e exocytotic pathway, identified before in Medicago truncatula, has a role in the local modification of cell wall during the release of rhizobia.

Variation for N Uptake System in Maize: Genotypic Response to N Supply.

An understanding of the adaptations made by plants in their nitrogen (N) uptake systems in response to reduced N supply is important to the development of cereals with enhanced N uptake efficiency (NUpE). Twenty seven diverse genotypes of maize (Zea mays, L.) were grown in hydroponics for 3 weeks with limiting or adequate N supply.

Maize maintains growth in response to decreased nitrate supply through a highly dynamic and developmental stage-specific transcriptional response.

Elucidation of the gene networks underlying the response to N supply and demand will facilitate the improvement of the N uptake efficiency of plants. We undertook a transcriptomic analysis of maize to identify genes responding to both a non-growth-limiting decrease in NO3- provision and to development-based N demand changes at seven representative points across the life cycle. Gene co-expression networks were derived by cluster analysis of the transcript profiles.

Adjustment of host cells for accommodation of symbiotic bacteria: vacuole defunctionalization, HOPS suppression, and TIP1g retargeting in Medicago.

In legume-rhizobia symbioses, the bacteria in infected cells are enclosed in a plant membrane, forming organelle-like compartments called symbiosomes. Symbiosomes remain as individual units and avoid fusion with lytic vacuoles of host cells. We observed changes in the vacuole volume of infected cells and thus hypothesized that microsymbionts may cause modifications in vacuole formation or function.

Soybean SAT1 (Symbiotic Ammonium Transporter 1) encodes a bHLH transcription factor involved in nodule growth and NH4+ transport.

Glycine max symbiotic ammonium transporter 1 was first documented as a putative ammonium (NH4(+)) channel localized to the symbiosome membrane of soybean root nodules. We show that Glycine max symbiotic ammonium transporter 1 is actually a membrane-localized basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) DNA-binding transcription factor now renamed Glycine max bHLH membrane 1 (GmbHLHm1). In yeast, GmbHLHm1 enters the nucleus and transcriptionally activates a unique plasma membrane NH4(+) channel Saccharomyces cerevisiae ammonium facilitator 1.