Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is a macronutrient determining crop yield. The application of N fertilisers can substantially increase the yield, but excess use also causes the nitrate pollution of water resources and increases production costs. Increasing N use efficiency (NUE) in crop plants is an important step to implement low-input agricultural systems. We used Arabidopsis thaliana as model system to investigate the natural genetic diversity in traits related to NUE. Natural variation was used to study adaptive growth patterns and changes in gene expression associated with limited nitrate availability. A genome-wide association study revealed an association of eight SNP markers on Chromosome 1 with shoot growth under limited N. The identified linkage disequilibrium (LD) interval includes the DNA sequences of three cysteine/histidine-rich C1 domain proteins in tandem orientation. These genes differ in promoter structure, methylation pattern and expression level among accessions, correlating with growth performance under N deficiency. Our results suggest the involvement of epigenetic regulation in the expression of NUE-related traits.
Highlights
Nitrogen (N2 ) is the most abundant element in the Earth’s atmosphere (78%) but is sparsely distributed in the soil, making soil nitrogen a growth limiting factor for plants
The plant biomass accumulation of accessions and mixed Recombinant Inbred Lines (mRILs) grown under low N in agar has been shown to vary considerably [8]
Data for rosette biomass under low N were taken under low N, a GWA analysis was performed separately for accessions and mRILs, using 106,402 and from [8] and used for statistical evaluation
Summary
Nitrogen (N2 ) is the most abundant element in the Earth’s atmosphere (78%) but is sparsely distributed in the soil, making soil nitrogen a growth limiting factor for plants. Nitrogen is an elementary building block for many essential molecules required for life: as part of amino acids, it contributes to protein synthesis, and in nucleic acids, it contributes to the conservation and transcription of genetic information. It is a key element in chlorophyll, the active core of photosynthesis [1]. The extensive use of fertilisers leads to N leakage, causing the eutrophication of surface waters or contamination of ground and drinking water with nitrate [2]. It is of great importance to reduce N fertiliser input, and one way is to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in plants to breed crop varieties with stable yields under reduced N fertilisation
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