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Plant Physiology Preview Published on May 28, 2008; 10.1104/pp.108.119339
Received March 18, 2008 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND TRANSCRIPTOMIC ASPECTS OF UREA UPTAKE AND ASSIMILATION IN ARABIDOPSIS PLANTS
INRA, IJPB, Unite de Nutrition Azotee des Plantes, F-78000 Versailles, France; INRA, Unite Mixte de Recherche en Genomique Vegetale, F-91057 Evry, France; BiotechMarine BP 65, 22260 Pontrieux, France * Corresponding author; email: vedele{at}versailles.inra.fr.
Urea is the major nitrogen (N) form supplied as fertilizer in agriculture but also an important N metabolite in plants. Urea transport and assimilation were investigated in Arabidopsis. Uptake studies using 15N-labelled urea demonstrated the capacity of Arabidopsis to absorb urea, and that the urea uptake was regulated by the initial N status of the plants. Urea uptake was stimulated by urea, but was reduced by the presence of ammonium nitrate in the growth medium. N deficiency in plants did not affect urea uptake. Urea exerted a repressive effect on nitrate influx whereas urea enhanced ammonium uptake. The use of [15N]urea and [15N]ammonium tracers allowed us to show that urea and ammonium assimilation pathways were similar. Finally, urea uptake was less efficient than nitrate uptake, and urea grown-plants presented signs of N starvation. We also report the first analysis of Arabidopsis gene expression profiling in response to urea. Our transcriptomic approach revealed that nitrate and ammonium transporters were transcriptionally regulated by urea, as well as key enzymes of the GS-GOGAT pathway. AtDUR3, a high-affinity urea transporter in Arabidopsis, was strongly up-regulated by urea. Moreover, our transcriptomic data suggest that other genes are also involved in urea influx.
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