Nitrogen regulates CRY1 phosphorylation and circadian clock input pathways.

The delayed flowering phenotype caused by nitrogen (N) fertilizer application has been known for a long time, but we know little about the specific molecular mechanism for this phenomenon before. Our study indicated that low nitrogen increases the NADPH/NADP(+) and ATP/AMP ratios which affect adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity and phosphorylation and abundance of nuclear CRY1 protein. Then CRY1 acts in the N signal input pathway to the circadian clock. Here we further discuss: (1) the role of C/N ratio in flowering, (2) circadian oscillation of plant AMPK transcripts and proteins, (3) conservation of nutrition-mediated CRY1 phosphorylation and degradation, and (4) crosstalks between nitrogen signals and nitric oxide (NO) signals in flowering.