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Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency
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Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency

A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2018) | Viewed by 26194

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Chungui Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nottingham Trent University, School of Animal, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Interests: Plant genomics; N and P use efficiency; Sustainable agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The approach of using large quantities of inorganic fertilizer is unsustainable because of diminishing returns both economically and environmentally. Only about a third of the fertilizer applied is actually absorbed by crops, and 50-70% is lost from the plant-soil system that can lead to the pollution of watercourses and contributes further to greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to improve plant nutrient use efficiency, so that crop production can be maintained and increased. This special issue focuses on understanding of nutrients (N, P, K or others) use efficiency in crop species, both from the perspective of the efficiency of uptake from the soil and the processes by which resources are then utilised in the plant. Greater understanding is required from the gene to the plant genomics with a modern integrative systems approach. In this special issue, we aimed to collect submissions on reporting the research findings and special reports of research and review focusing on the topic of plant nutrient use efficiency, including 1) Optimum use of nutrient fertilisers by crops; 2) Nutrient uptake efficiency and utilisation efficiency (root systems and transporters); 3) Genetic improvement toward plant breeding; 4) Regulatory mechanisms of nutrients (e.g. N, P, K) through genomic approach; 5) New approaches such gene editing. Scope of the issue includes the above topics but reports that are related to these topics are also welcomed.

Prof. Chungui Lu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nitrogen/phosphate use efficiency
  • Nutrient uptake efficiency
  • genetic markers

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

23 pages, 4875 KiB  
Article
Differential Alternative Splicing Genes in Response to Boron Deficiency in Brassica napus
by Jin Gu, Wei Li, Sheliang Wang, Xiaoyan Zhang, Anne Coules, Guangda Ding, Fangsen Xu, Jian Ren, Chungui Lu and Lei Shi
Genes 2019, 10(3), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10030224 - 18 Mar 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3769
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) can increase transcriptome diversity, protein diversity and protein yield, and is an important mechanism to regulate plant responses to stress. Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), one of the main oil crops in China, shows higher sensitivity to boron (B) [...] Read more.
Alternative splicing (AS) can increase transcriptome diversity, protein diversity and protein yield, and is an important mechanism to regulate plant responses to stress. Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), one of the main oil crops in China, shows higher sensitivity to boron (B) deficiency than other species. Here, we demonstrated AS changes that largely increased the diversity of the mRNA expressed in response to B deficiency in B. napus. Each gene had two or more transcripts on average. A total of 33.3% genes in both Qingyou10 (QY10, B-efficient cultivar) and Westar10 (W10, B-inefficient cultivar) showed AS in both B conditions. The types of AS events were mainly intron retention, 3′ alternative splice site, 5′ alternative splice site and exon skipping. The tolerance ability of QY10 was higher than that of W10, possibly because there were far more differential alternative splicing (DAS) genes identified in QY10 at low B conditions than in W10. The number of genes with both DAS and differentially expressed (DE) was far lower than that of the genes that were either with DAS or DE in QY10 and W10, suggesting that the DAS and DE genes were independent. Four Serine/Arginine-rich (SR) splicing factors, BnaC06g14780D, BnaA01g14750D, BnaA06g15930D and BnaC01g41640D, underwent differentially alternative splicing in both cultivars. There existed gene–gene interactions between BnaC06g14780D and the genes associated with the function of B in oilseed rape at low B supply. This suggests that oilseed rape could regulate the alterative pre-mRNA splicing of SR protein related genes to increase the plant tolerance to B deficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency)
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15 pages, 3781 KiB  
Article
The Yellow Stripe-Like (YSL) Gene Functions in Internal Copper Transport in Peanut
by Jing Dai, Nanqi Wang, Hongchun Xiong, Wei Qiu, Hiromi Nakanishi, Takanori Kobayashi, Naoko K. Nishizawa and Yuanmei Zuo
Genes 2018, 9(12), 635; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9120635 - 14 Dec 2018
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5475
Abstract
Copper (Cu) is involved in fundamental biological processes for plant growth and development. However, Cu excess is harmful to plants. Thus, Cu in plant tissues must be tightly regulated. In this study, we found that the peanut Yellow Stripe-Like family gene AhYSL3.1 is [...] Read more.
Copper (Cu) is involved in fundamental biological processes for plant growth and development. However, Cu excess is harmful to plants. Thus, Cu in plant tissues must be tightly regulated. In this study, we found that the peanut Yellow Stripe-Like family gene AhYSL3.1 is involved in Cu transport. Among five AhYSL genes, AhYSL3.1 and AhYSL3.2 were upregulated by Cu deficiency in peanut roots and expressed mainly in young leaves. A yeast complementation assay suggested that the plasma membrane-localized AhYSL3.1 was a Cu-nicotianamine complex transporter. High expression of AhYSL3.1 in tobacco and rice plants with excess Cu resulted in a low concentration of Cu in young leaves. These transgenic plants were resistant to excess Cu. The above results suggest that AhYSL3.1 is responsible for the internal transport of Cu in peanut. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency)
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18 pages, 3131 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen Supply and Leaf Age Affect the Expression of TaGS1 or TaGS2 Driven by a Constitutive Promoter in Transgenic Tobacco
by Yihao Wei, Aibo Shi, Xiting Jia, Zhiyong Zhang, Xinming Ma, Mingxin Gu, Xiaodan Meng and Xiaochun Wang
Genes 2018, 9(8), 406; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9080406 - 10 Aug 2018
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4401
Abstract
Glutamine synthetase (GS) plays a key role in nitrogen metabolism. Here, two types of tobacco transformants, overexpressing Triticum aestivum GS1 (TaGS1) or GS2 (TaGS2), were analysed. Four independent transformed lines, GS1-TR1, GS1-TR2, GS2-TR1 and GS2-TR2, were used for the nitrogen treatment. Under nitrogen-sufficient [...] Read more.
Glutamine synthetase (GS) plays a key role in nitrogen metabolism. Here, two types of tobacco transformants, overexpressing Triticum aestivum GS1 (TaGS1) or GS2 (TaGS2), were analysed. Four independent transformed lines, GS1-TR1, GS1-TR2, GS2-TR1 and GS2-TR2, were used for the nitrogen treatment. Under nitrogen-sufficient conditions, the leaves of GS2-TR showed high accumulation of the TaGS2 transcript, while those of GS1-TR showed a low TaGS1 transcript levels. However, compared with nitrogen-sufficient conditions, the TaGS1 transcript level increased in the leaves under nitrogen starvation, but the TaGS2 transcript level decreased. In addition, the TaGS1 and TaGS2 transcript levels were highest in the middle leaves under nitrogen-sufficient and starvation conditions. These results show that nitrogen supply and leaf age regulate TaGS expression, even when they are driven by a super-promoter. Additionally, in regard to nitrogen metabolism level, the lower leaves of the GS1-TR exhibited lower NH4+ and higher amino acid contents, while the upper leaves exhibited higher amino acid, soluble protein and chlorophyll contents. The leaves of the GS2-TR exhibited lower NH4+ but higher amino acid, soluble protein and chlorophyll contents. Given the role that GS isoforms play in nitrogen metabolism, these data suggest that TaGS1 overexpression may improve nitrogen transport, and that TaGS2 overexpression may improve nitrogen assimilation under nitrogen stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency)
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Review

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25 pages, 2342 KiB  
Review
An Integrative Systems Perspective on Plant Phosphate Research
by Ishan Ajmera, T. Charlie Hodgman and Chungui Lu
Genes 2019, 10(2), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10020139 - 13 Feb 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 5208
Abstract
The case for improving crop phosphorus-use-efficiency is widely recognized. Although much is known about the molecular and regulatory mechanisms, improvements have been hampered by the extreme complexity of phosphorus (P) dynamics, which involves soil chemistry; plant-soil interactions; uptake, transport, utilization and remobilization within [...] Read more.
The case for improving crop phosphorus-use-efficiency is widely recognized. Although much is known about the molecular and regulatory mechanisms, improvements have been hampered by the extreme complexity of phosphorus (P) dynamics, which involves soil chemistry; plant-soil interactions; uptake, transport, utilization and remobilization within plants; and agricultural practices. The urgency and direction of phosphate research is also dependent upon the finite sources of P, availability of stocks to farmers and reducing environmental hazards. This work introduces integrative systems approaches as a way to represent and understand this complexity, so that meaningful links can be established between genotype, environment, crop traits and yield. It aims to provide a large set of pointers to potential genes and research practice, with a view to encouraging members of the plant-phosphate research community to adopt such approaches so that, together, we can aid efforts in global food security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency)
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17 pages, 947 KiB  
Review
Long Non-Coding RNAs as Endogenous Target Mimics and Exploration of Their Role in Low Nutrient Stress Tolerance in Plants
by Priyanka Borah, Antara Das, Matthew J. Milner, Arif Ali, Alison R. Bentley and Renu Pandey
Genes 2018, 9(9), 459; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9090459 - 14 Sep 2018
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 6690
Abstract
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) research in plants has recently gained momentum taking cues from studies in animals systems. The availability of next-generation sequencing has enabled genome-wide identification of lncRNA in several plant species. Some lncRNAs are inhibitors of microRNA expression and have a [...] Read more.
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) research in plants has recently gained momentum taking cues from studies in animals systems. The availability of next-generation sequencing has enabled genome-wide identification of lncRNA in several plant species. Some lncRNAs are inhibitors of microRNA expression and have a function known as target mimicry with the sequestered transcript known as an endogenous target mimic (eTM). The lncRNAs identified to date show diverse mechanisms of gene regulation, most of which remain poorly understood. In this review, we discuss the role of identified putative lncRNAs that may act as eTMs for nutrient-responsive microRNAs (miRNAs) in plants. If functionally validated, these putative lncRNAs would enhance current understanding of the role of lncRNAs in nutrient homeostasis in plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Plant Nutrient Use efficiency)
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