Nitrate uptake and its regulation in relation to improving nitrogen use efficiency in cereals

Abstract

On average less than half of the applied N is captured by crops, thus there is scope and need to improveN uptake in cereals. With nitrate (NO3−) being the main form of N available to cereal crops there hasbeen a significant global research effort to understand plant NO3−uptake. Despite this, our knowledgeof the NO3−uptake system is not sufficient to easily target ways to improve NO3−uptake. Based on thisthere is an identified need to better understand the NO3−uptake system and the signalling moleculesthat modulate it. With strong transcriptional control governing the NO3−uptake system, we also neednew leads for modulating transcription of NO3−transporter genes