Mini Review: Targeting Below-ground Plant Performance to Improve Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) in Barley

Overview

Journal Front Genet

Date 2023 Mar 20

PMID 36935938

Authors

Claire Huang

Clayton R Butterly

David Moody

Mohammad Pourkheirandish

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is one of the major inputs for grain crops including barley and its usage is increasing globally. However, N use efficiency (NUE) is low in cereal crops, leading to higher production costs, unfulfilled grain yield potential and environmental hazards. N uptake is initiated from plant root tips but a very limited number of studies have been conducted on roots relevant to NUE specifically. In this review, we used barley, the fourth most important cereal crop, as the primary study plant to investigate this topic. We first highlighted the recent progress and study gaps in genetic analysis results, primarily, the genome-wide association study (GWAS) regarding both biological and statistical considerations. In addition, different factors contributing to NUE are discussed in terms of root morphological and anatomical traits, as well as physiological mechanisms such as N transporter activities and hormonal regulation.

References

Bolormaa S, Pryce J, Reverter A, Zhang Y, Barendse W, Kemper K . A multi-trait, meta-analysis for detecting pleiotropic polymorphisms for stature, fatness and reproduction in beef cattle. PLoS Genet. 2014; 10(3):e1004198. PMC: 3967938. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004198. View

Teramoto S, Kitomi Y, Nishijima R, Takayasu S, Maruyama N, Uga Y . Backhoe-assisted monolith method for plant root phenotyping under upland conditions. Breed Sci. 2019; 69(3):508-513. PMC: 6776139. DOI: 10.1270/jsbbs.19019. View

Agren G, Franklin O . Root : shoot ratios, optimization and nitrogen productivity. Ann Bot. 2003; 92(6):795-800. PMC: 4243620. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcg203. View

Witte C . Urea metabolism in plants. Plant Sci. 2011; 180(3):431-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2010.11.010. View

Lynch J . Steep, cheap and deep: an ideotype to optimize water and N acquisition by maize root systems. Ann Bot. 2013; 112(2):347-57. PMC: 3698384. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcs293. View

Huang M, Liu X, Zhou Y, Summers R, Zhang Z . BLINK: a package for the next level of genome-wide association studies with both individuals and markers in the millions. Gigascience. 2018; 8(2). PMC: 6365300. DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giy154. View

Garnett T, Conn V, Kaiser B . Root based approaches to improving nitrogen use efficiency in plants. Plant Cell Environ. 2009; 32(9):1272-83. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3040.2009.02011.x. View

Liu Y, Lai N, Gao K, Chen F, Yuan L, Mi G . Ammonium inhibits primary root growth by reducing the length of meristem and elongation zone and decreasing elemental expansion rate in the root apex in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS One. 2013; 8(4):e61031. PMC: 3620058. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061031. View

Coulter M, Entizne J, Guo W, Bayer M, Wonneberger R, Milne L . BaRTv2: a highly resolved barley reference transcriptome for accurate transcript-specific RNA-seq quantification. Plant J. 2022; 111(4):1183-1202. PMC: 9546494. DOI: 10.1111/tpj.15871. View

10.

Del Mar Rubio-Wilhelmi M, Sanchez-Rodriguez E, Rosales M, Blasco B, Rios J, Romero L . Cytokinin-dependent improvement in transgenic P(SARK)::IPT tobacco under nitrogen deficiency. J Agric Food Chem. 2011; 59(19):10491-5. DOI: 10.1021/jf202604k. View

11.

Pourkheirandish M, Hensel G, Kilian B, Senthil N, Chen G, Sameri M . Evolution of the Grain Dispersal System in Barley. Cell. 2015; 162(3):527-39. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.07.002. View

12.

Kumar D, Sharma S, Sharma R, Pundir S, Singh V, Chaturvedi D . Genome-wide association study in hexaploid wheat identifies novel genomic regions associated with resistance to root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus thornei). Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1):3572. PMC: 7878755. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-80996-0. View

13.

Liu W, Wang J, Wang C, Ma G, Wei Q, Lu H . Root Growth, Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies in Winter Wheat Under Different Irrigation and Nitrogen Regimes in North China Plain. Front Plant Sci. 2018; 9:1798. PMC: 6290123. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01798. View

14.

Han M, Wong J, Su T, Beatty P, Good A . Identification of Nitrogen Use Efficiency Genes in Barley: Searching for QTLs Controlling Complex Physiological Traits. Front Plant Sci. 2016; 7:1587. PMC: 5073129. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2016.01587. View

15.

Schneider H, Postma J, Kochs J, Pflugfelder D, Lynch J, van Dusschoten D . Spatio-Temporal Variation in Water Uptake in Seminal and Nodal Root Systems of Barley Plants Grown in Soil. Front Plant Sci. 2020; 11:1247. PMC: 7438553. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.01247. View

16.

Plett D, Ranathunge K, Melino V, Kuya N, Uga Y, Kronzucker H . The intersection of nitrogen nutrition and water use in plants: new paths toward improved crop productivity. J Exp Bot. 2020; 71(15):4452-4468. PMC: 7382376. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eraa049. View

17.

Boudsocq S, Niboyet A, Lata J, Raynaud X, Loeuille N, Mathieu J . Plant preference for ammonium versus nitrate: a neglected determinant of ecosystem functioning?. Am Nat. 2012; 180(1):60-9. DOI: 10.1086/665997. View

18.

Lin D, Zeng D . Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies: no efficiency gain in using individual participant data. Genet Epidemiol. 2009; 34(1):60-6. PMC: 3878085. DOI: 10.1002/gepi.20435. View

19.

Hochholdinger F, Yu P, Marcon C . Genetic Control of Root System Development in Maize. Trends Plant Sci. 2017; 23(1):79-88. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2017.10.004. View

20.

Tolley S, Mohammadi M . Variation in Root and Shoot Growth in Response to Reduced Nitrogen. Plants (Basel). 2020; 9(2). PMC: 7076707. DOI: 10.3390/plants9020144. View