Abstract
Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe) are some of the vital nutrients required for optimum growth, development, and productivity of plants. The deficiency of any of these nutrients may lead to defects in plant growth and decreased productivity. Plant responses to the deficiency of N, P, S, Fe, or Zn have been studied mainly as a separate event, and only a few reports discuss the molecular basis of biological interaction among the nutrients. Macro-nutrients like N, P, and/or S not only show the interacting pathways for each other but also affect micro-nutrient pathways. Limited reports are available on the investigation of two-by-two or multi-level nutrient interactions in plants. Such studies on the nutrient interaction pathways suggest that an MYB-like transcription factor, phosphate starvation response 1 (PHR1), acts as a master regulator of N, P, S, Fe, and Zn homeostasis. Similarly, light-responsive transcription factors were identified to be involved in modulating nutrient responses in Arabidopsis. This review focuses on the recent advances in our understanding of how plants coordinate the acquisition, transport, signaling, and interacting pathways for N, P, S, Fe, and Zn nutrition at the molecular level. Identification of the important candidate genes for interactions between N, P, S, Fe, and/or Zn metabolic pathways might be useful for the breeders to improve nutrient use efficiency and yield/quality of crop plants. Integrated studies on pathways interactions/cross-talks between macro‐ and micro-nutrients in the agronomically important crop plants would be essential for sustainable agriculture around the globe, particularly under the changing climatic conditions.
Highlights
Plant growth and development are largely determined by nutrient availability; to ensure better productivity of crop plants, it becomes essential to understand the dynamics of nutrients uptake, transport, assimilation, and their biological interactions (Wawrzyńska and Sirko, 2014)
While Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potash (K), Calcium, Sulfur (S), and Magnesium are known as macro-nutrients, Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Copper, Boron, Manganese Molybdenum, Chloride, and others are the micro-nutrients for the growth and development of crop plants
The combinations of high-throughput “Omics” and reverse genetics approaches have resulted in the characterization of genes involved in the interactions between multiple nutrients homeostasis
Summary
Plant growth and development are largely determined by nutrient availability; to ensure better productivity of crop plants, it becomes essential to understand the dynamics of nutrients uptake, transport, assimilation, and their biological interactions (Wawrzyńska and Sirko, 2014). Phosphorus and sulfur being essential macro-nutrients for plant growth, development, and productivity, they show interactions in terms of substituting phospholipids with sulfolipids and galactolipids in cellular membranes under P-deficiency stress (Okazaki et al, 2013) While such biological interactions between N, P, and S are well-known (Aulakh and Pasricha, 1977; Sinclair et al, 1997; Smith et al, 2000; Gojon et al, 2009; Islam et al, 2012; Chotchutima et al, 2016; Krouk and Kiba, 2020), the knowledge of signaling pathways involved in responses to nutrient availability/deficiency is still limited. Deficiency of micro-element results in certain physiological disorders impacting plant growth, development, and productivity Such interactions have been partially understood at physiological and molecular levels, the intricate nutritional cross-talks need to be extensively studied to maximize crop productivity
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