Improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop plants: Functional analysis of high-affinity ammonium transport in plant lines altered in ammonium transport capacity

改善作物品种的氮肥使用将通过减少与氮相关的环境污染而使澳大利亚和世界农业受益。氮肥可以从土壤中沥滤出来，导致地下水、河流、河口和海洋的污染。使用模式植物系统，我们正在解剖的基因和它们编码的蛋白质负责铵氮吸收到植物。确定这些基因的植物功能将允许新的育种方法专门靶向基因，这将提高铵吸收的效率，并减少对现代农业作物生产中氮肥供应的依赖。

Improving nitrogen fertiliser use in crop species will benefit Australia and world agriculture by reducing nitrogen-linked environmental pollution. Nitrogen fertilisers can be leached from soils and result in the pollution of ground water, rivers, estuaries and oceans. Using model plant systems we are dissecting the genes and their encoded proteins responsible for ammonium nitrogen uptake into plants. Identifying the in planta function of these genes will allow new breeding approaches to specifically target genes that will improve the efficiency of ammonium uptake and lessen the reliance on the supply of nitrogen fertilizers in modern agricultural crop production.