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

通过减少与氮有关的环境污染，改善作物品种氮肥的使用将有利于澳大利亚和世界农业。氮肥可以从土壤中浸出，导致地下水、河流、河口和海洋受到污染。利用模型植物系统，我们剖析了负责植物吸收铵态氮的基因及其编码蛋白。确定这些基因在植物中的功能将允许新的育种方法来特异性靶向基因，这些基因将提高现代农作物生产中铵的吸收效率并减少对氮肥供应的依赖。

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.