Overexpression of Arabidopsis NLP7 improves plant growth under both nitrogen-limiting and -sufficient conditions by enhancing nitrogen and carbon assimilation.
Nitrogen is essential for plant survival and growth. Excessive application of nitrogenous fertilizer has generated serious environment pollution and increased production cost in agriculture. To deal with this problem, tremendous efforts have been invested worldwide to increase the nitrogen use ability of crops. However, only limited success has been achieved to date. Here we report that NLP7 (NIN-LIKE PROTEIN 7) is a potential candidate to improve plant nitrogen use ability. When overexpressed in Arabidopsis, NLP7 increases plant biomass under both nitrogen-poor and -rich conditions with better-developed root system and reduced shoot/root ratio. NLP7-overexpressing plants show a significant increase in key nitrogen metabolites, nitrogen uptake, total nitrogen content, and expression levels of genes involved in nitrogen assimilation and signalling. More importantly, overexpression of NLP7 also enhances photosynthesis rate and carbon assimilation, whereas knockout of NLP7 impaired both nitrogen and carbon assimilation. In addition, NLP7 improves plant growth and nitrogen use in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Our results demonstrate that NLP7 significantly improves plant growth under both nitrogen-poor and -rich conditions by coordinately enhancing nitrogen and carbon assimilation and sheds light on crop improvement.
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Lin-Hui
LH
Yu
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Jie
J
Wu
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Hui
H
Tang
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Yang
Y
Yuan
Rice Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
Shi-Mei
SM
Wang
Rice Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
Yu-Ping
YP
Wang
Rice Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
Qi-Sheng
QS
Zhu
Rice Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
Shi-Gui
SG
Li
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Cheng-Bin
CB
Xiang
D000383:Agriculture; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015854:Up-Regulation
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C000626445:NIN-LIKE PROTEIN7, Arabidopsis; D014157:Transcription Factors; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen