Identification of conserved genes involved in nitrogen metabolic activities in wheat

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) plays a very important role in crop growth and development. Many N-metabolism-related genes responsive to N application have been identified in many plants such as Arabidopsis, rice and maize; however, few genes have been reported in wheat, which is one of the most widely grown crops in the world. In this study, a wheat wild type with N dependent lesion mimic (LM) and its mutants without LM were used to identify conserved N-metabolism-related genes. TaPAP, TaUPS and TaNMR were differentially expressed among N levels both in the wild type and two of its mutants, and the expression patterns of these genes were further studied under application of three chemotypes of N (NH4+, NO3- and NH4NO3). The results showed that these genes are conserved N-metabolism-related genes and TaNMR is a novel player in N-metabolism.

Keywords

• Wheat
• Lesion mimic mutant
• Nitrogen metabolism-related gene