title: Integration of nitrogen and potassium signaling.
abstract: Sensing and responding to soil nutrient fluctuations are vital for the survival of higher plants. Over the past few years, great progress has been made in our understanding of nitrogen and potassium signaling. Key components of the signaling pathways including sensors, kinases, miRNA, ubiquitin ligases, and transcriptional factors. These components mediate the transcriptional responses, root-architecture changes, and uptake-activity modulation induced by nitrate, ammonium, and potassium in the soil solution. Integration of these responses allows plants to compete for limited nutrients and to survive under nutrient deficiency or toxic nutrient excess. A future challenge is to extend the present fragmented sets of data to a comprehensive signaling network. Then, such knowledge and the accompanying molecular tools can be applied to improve the efficiency of nutrient utilization in crops.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. yftsay@gate.sinica.edu.tw
authors.forename: Yi-Fang
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Tsay
authors.forename: Cheng-Hsun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Hui-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shan-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D027321:Anion Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D000091285:Nitrate Transporters; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism*; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D027321:Anion Transport Proteins; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; D000091285:Nitrate Transporters; D010940:Plant Proteins; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; C088952:ammonium transporters, plant; D009584:Nitrogen; D011188:Potassium