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Advances in Nitrogen Nutrition in Plants—2nd Edition
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Advances in Nitrogen Nutrition in Plants—2nd Edition

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 1391

Editor

Prof. Dr. Takuji Ohyama

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Biochemistry in Plant Productivity, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan
Interests: nitrogen fixation; nitrogen metabolism; nitrogen transport; soybean; fertilizer application technology; 15N isotope; roots; seed production; sustainable agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen is an essential major element for all living things because it is a constituent component in amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, and other important biomolecules. Animals, including humans, cannot assimilate inorganic N compounds, so they depend on those generated by plants.

Most terrestrial plants absorb nitrate or ammonium in soils, but the availability of N often restricts plant growth and crop yield. Plants cannot fix atmospheric N2 by themselves, but some plants can use N2 fixed by nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria. An understanding of the processes of N absorption, transport, and assimilation in plants is fundamental to improving plant characteristics and agricultural practices to increase crop yield and quality. Much remains to be discovered in the field of N nutrition in plants, such as the sensing of N, regulation of N uptake, transport, and assimilation, as well as itsmetabolic implications for carbon integration, energy balance, and the synthesis of critical downstream compounds. This Special Issue of Plants will highlight the recent advances in N nutrition in plants, including N absorption, assimilation and its metabolic consequences, transport, and protein synthesis in sink organs. We welcome original and review articles from the basic to applied sciences on N nutrition in plants.

Prof. Dr. Takuji Ohyama
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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 nutrition
  • plants
  • N absorption
  • N assimilation
  • N transport
  • N utilization
  • physiology
  • metabolism
  • genetics
  • N fertilizer

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1796 KB  
Article
Composition of Primary Metabolites in Winter Barley Grain as Affected by NPK Fertilization of Reclaimed Land
by The Ngoc Phuong Nguyen, Minchang Kim, Jwakyung Sung and Alisdair R. Fernie
Plants 2026, 15(12), 1780; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15121780 - 9 Jun 2026
Viewed by 325
Abstract
Optimizing nutrient management is critical for enhancing crop productivity and grain nutritional quality in reclaimed soils, where poor soil fertility and salinity often limit barley cultivation. In that context, this study evaluated the effects of NPK fertilization on barley grain metabolism in reclaimed [...] Read more.
Optimizing nutrient management is critical for enhancing crop productivity and grain nutritional quality in reclaimed soils, where poor soil fertility and salinity often limit barley cultivation. In that context, this study evaluated the effects of NPK fertilization on barley grain metabolism in reclaimed soil, using four barley cultivars (Betaone, Heuknuri, Nurichal, and Sogang) under fertilized (F) and non-fertilized (NF) conditions. Chemical fertilization (N–P2O5–K2O = 88–72–36 kg ha−1) increased crude protein (CP) concentrations in Heuknuri and Sogang by over 30%, while reducing the soluble sugar content by 15–24%. In contrast, starch content remained relatively stable across all cultivars. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) profiling revealed that fertilization caused only modest changes in grain primary metabolism, including increased fatty acids (oleate, linoleate), alongside consistent accumulation of amino acids related to nitrogen assimilation (asparate, asparagine, glutarate, proline). Two-way ANOVA and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the cultivar identity, rather than fertilization, was the dominant factor shaping metabolic variation, affecting 23 of 28 detected metabolites. Notably, Betaone and Heuknuri exhibited higher overall metabolite accumulation and stable metabolic profiles across treatments, suggesting better physiological adaptation to nutrient-deficiency stress. These results indicate that NPK fertilization under reclaimed soil conditions promotes nitrogen assimilation more than carbon storage, and grain metabolic changes are largely cultivar-dependent. However, the underlying regulatory mechanisms controlling carbon–nitrogen allocation and lipid metabolism under fertilization were not fully investigated and require further multi-omics and long-term field studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nitrogen Nutrition in Plants—2nd Edition)
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21 pages, 5588 KB  
Article
Regulation of Second Basal Internode Characteristics by Nitrogen Fertilizer Enhances Lodging Resistance and Yield in Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
by Chong Shang, Qianwen Li, Weiwei Duan, Jinkao Guo, Baoyuan Zhou, Jiayu Ma, Li Wang, Xuejing Liu and Wenchao Zhen
Plants 2026, 15(7), 1089; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15071089 - 2 Apr 2026
Viewed by 706
Abstract
In the North China Plain (NCP), wind and rain during the grain-filling period of winter wheat can cause lodging. The second basal internode (I2), a key load-bearing structure, plays a central role in yield stability. This study, under a constant nitrogen (N) application [...] Read more.
In the North China Plain (NCP), wind and rain during the grain-filling period of winter wheat can cause lodging. The second basal internode (I2), a key load-bearing structure, plays a central role in yield stability. This study, under a constant nitrogen (N) application rate of 270 kg ha−1, aimed to clarify how nitrogen basal-to-topdressing ratios regulate I2 characteristics to balance lodging resistance and yield increase. Field experiments were conducted across two seasons with three cultivars and three nitrogen split ratios (5:5, CK; 3:7, N1; and 7:3, N2). Dynamic measurements of I2 mechanical properties, morphology, anatomy, and composition were taken, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for analysis. Results showed that the culm lodging resistance index (CLRI) decreased by 41.8% from flowering to milk stage under all treatments, with CLRI at the milk stage of lodging treatments between 0.11 and 0.15. SEM supported a composition–structure–lodging resistance–yield chain, with CLRI as the key mediator. The N1 treatment significantly improved CLRI at all stages and increased yield by 12.2% compared to CK, making it a recommended nitrogen strategy for improving both yield and lodging resistance. These findings provide agronomically applicable nitrogen management guidelines for high-yield winter wheat systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nitrogen Nutrition in Plants—2nd Edition)
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