Exploring the nexus of Nitrogen and Carbon utilization and its role in plant growth and the transition to reproductive development

探索氮和碳利用的关系及其在植物生长和生殖发育过渡中的作用

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05169
• 负责人: Rothstein, Steven
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715402
• 关键词: Exploring; nexus; Nitrogen; Carbon; utilization

Summary for Public Release Worldwide crop production is under considerable stress due to several factors, including population growth, increased crop use per person, increasing atmospheric CO2 and other environmental issues. A major challenge is to increase global crop yields in an economically and environmentally sustainable fashion. A key limiting factor and single largest input cost for many crops is nitrogen (N). Whereas prohibitive fertilizer costs in developing countries leads to lower yields, use of large amounts of N fertilizer causes significant and irreversible environmental damage. Thus, a better understanding of how crops use nitrogen will lead to technology that can enhance crop productivity and would markedly reduce costs and increase yields for farmers of all nations. How plants sense and assimilate N occupies a central node in a complex meshwork of interacting processes. This research focuses on specific nodes of this network to clarify how plants integrate N levels to maximize plant growth. A particular aim of this study is to analyse the functions of two genes involved in distinct yet overlapping nodes. 1) The ENOD93 family genes modulate how plants sense N and transmits this information to coordinate plant growth and flowering time with nutrient availability, which is directly correlated with yield. In preliminary studies, we find that altering activity of ENOD93 genes in different plant species, including important crop plants such as rice, results in improved plant growth with lower N input. 2) Similar to ENOD93, the GATA12 genes regulate growth under different N levels to coordinate growth traits such as flowering time and biomass production. Determining how these genes function, alone or together, will provide insights into the larger genetic network that coordinates nutrient uptake with plant growth. Accordingly, understanding of the underlying mechanisms controlled by these genes could bring to light new and incisive ways to create better crop plants. A general consensus among researchers studying the complexities plant growth is that there is much room for improvement with regard to how plants use nutrients to create biomass and, thus, yield. Improving the efficiency of this process is a vital first step to creating better crops with fewer negative consequences. The ultimate outcome of this research will be to provide knowledge that leads to the production of crop plants needed to feed the majority of the world population with less environmental damage.

公开发布摘要 由于几个因素，包括人口增长、人均作物使用量增加、大气二氧化碳增加和其他环境问题，全球农作物生产面临相当大的压力。一项重大挑战是以经济和环境可持续的方式提高全球作物产量。氮(N)是许多作物的一个关键限制因素和单一最大投入成本。虽然发展中国家令人望而却步的化肥成本导致产量较低，但大量使用氮肥会造成重大的、不可逆转的环境破坏。因此，更好地了解作物如何利用氮素将导致能够提高作物生产率的技术，并将显著降低成本，提高各国农民的产量。在复杂的相互作用过程网络中，植物如何感知和同化N是一个中心节点。本研究聚焦于该网络的特定节点，以阐明植物如何整合氮素水平，以最大限度地促进植物生长。这项研究的一个特别目的是分析两个基因在不同但重叠的节点中的功能。1)ENOD93家族基因调节植物感知N的方式，并传递这一信息，以协调植物的生长和开花时间与养分的有效性，这与产量直接相关。在初步研究中，我们发现在不同的植物物种中，包括水稻等重要作物中，改变ENOD93基因的活性可以在较低的N输入下改善植物的生长。2)与ENOD93类似，GATA12基因调控不同氮素水平下的生长，以协调开花时间和生物量生产等生长性状。确定这些基因如何单独或共同发挥作用，将为我们提供对协调营养吸收和植物生长的更大遗传网络的洞察。因此，了解这些基因控制的潜在机制可能会带来创造更好作物的新的和深刻的方法。在研究植物生长复杂性的研究人员中，一个普遍的共识是，在植物如何利用养分创造生物量从而提高产量方面，还有很大的改进空间。提高这一过程的效率是创造更好作物、减少负面后果的重要第一步。这项研究的最终结果将是提供知识，从而生产出以较少的环境破坏养活世界大多数人口所需的作物。