Chapter six - Molecular basis of plant nutrient use efficiency - concepts and challenges for its improvement

Abstract

Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of the plants is depends on the plant's ability to efficiently uptake nutrients from the soil, along with intracellular transportation, storage, mobilization/remobilization of nutrients, nutrient metabolism within the plant, and even on the environment. Better uptake efficiency and enhanced utilization efficiency are two pathways by which nutrient use efficiency can be improved but there relative importance will reflect the amount and availability of nutrients in the soil. Advancement of molecular and genomic techniques leads to enhanced understanding of nutrient use efficiency which further helps in developing more nutrient efficient varieties. To understand the molecular genetic basis of NUE the efforts are underway while much of it is not entirely understood yet. Improved, efficient and precise techniques are providing ample opportunities for dissecting molecular and genetic components contributing NUE related processes therefore, expanding our understanding on plant nutrition. For determination of efficiency by which plants use nutrients to produce biomass and/or grain the joint effect of both plant intrinsic factors and environmental factors is documented well. From limited productive and fertile land is not possible to meet out global food demand hence for expansion of crop production into marginal lands with low nutrient availability improvement of nutrient use efficiency is an essential prerequisite. In this chapter, we are discussing some basic concepts related with nutrients acquisition and utilization efficiencies, and review current knowledge on key genes regulating these processes in different plant species.