Improving crop nitrogen use efficiency

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The use of nitrogenous fertilizers in farming is a large input cost to farmers and has a profound negative impact on the environment. As the price of energy increases the cost of nitrogen fertilizer will also increase as its production involves a process that requires large amounts of energy. High input crops are dependent on the use of nitrogenous fertilizers; however, the majority of the nitrogen from these fertilizers (approximately 70%) is lost as runoff into surface and ground waters. Furthermore, nitrogenous fertilizers are responsible for the production of nitrous oxide (agricultural soils account for 70% of production), which contribute significantly to greenhouse gases and the formation of acid rain. It is clearly valuable from both an economic and environmental point of view to decrease the use of nitrogenous fertilizers from current levels while maintaining crop yields. In the proposed work, we plan on studying nitrogen use efficiency in rice and corn. We will use both transcript and metabolite profiling to analyze their growth under varying nitrogen limitation conditions. In addition, through previous work we have generated a large number of rice and corn transgenic lines. We will continue to study in greater detail those having interesting phenotypes using physiological, biochemical, molecular and genomic analyses. We will combine these two lines of work to generate ideas about additional genes to test. These constructs will be transformed into rice (by us), into corn (by our partners Syngenta) and into barley (by Dr. Good's group through a provincial funding program) and the resulting lines tested for improved growth under nitrogen limitation conditions. Any lines with improved growth under these conditions in our controlled growth facilities will be field tested by our partners Syngenta to see if they have improved nitrogen use efficiency. Ultimately this research will assist in reducing the economic cost to farmers and help reduce the impact of agricultural production on aquatic ecosystems (surface and ground water) and reduce the levels of nitrous oxide being released into the air.