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Whole plant acclimation responses by finger millet to low nitrogen stress.

ABSTRACT: The small grain cereal, finger millet (FM, Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn), is valued by subsistence farmers in India and East Africa as a low-input crop. It is reported by farmers to require no added nitrogen (N), or only residual N, to produce grain. Exact mechanisms underlying the acclimation responses of FM to low N are largely unknown, both above and below ground. In particular, the responses of FM roots and root hairs to N or any other nutrient have not previously been reported. Given its low N requirement, FM also provides a rare opportunity to study long-term responses to N starvation in a cereal species. The objective of this study was to survey the shoot and root morphometric responses of FM, including root hairs, to low N stress. Plants were grown in pails in a semi-hydroponic system on clay containing extremely low background N, supplemented with N or no N. To our surprise, plants grown without deliberately added N grew to maturity, looked relatively normal and produced healthy seed heads. Plants responded to the low N treatment by decreasing shoot, root, and seed head biomass. These declines under low N were associated with decreased shoot tiller number, crown root number, total crown root length and total lateral root length, but with no consistent changes in root hair traits. Changes in tiller and crown root number appeared to coordinate the above and below ground acclimation responses to N. We discuss the remarkable ability of FM to grow to maturity without deliberately added N. The results suggest that FM should be further explored to understand this trait. Our observations are consistent with indigenous knowledge from subsistence farmers in Africa and Asia, where it is reported that this crop can survive extreme environments.

SUBMITTER: Goron TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4541148 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Whole plant acclimation responses by finger millet to low nitrogen stress.

Goron Travis L TL Bhosekar Vijay K VK Shearer Charles R CR Watts Sophia S Raizada Manish N MN

Frontiers in plant science 20150819

The small grain cereal, finger millet (FM, Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn), is valued by subsistence farmers in India and East Africa as a low-input crop. It is reported by farmers to require no added nitrogen (N), or only residual N, to produce grain. Exact mechanisms underlying the acclimation responses of FM to low N are largely unknown, both above and below ground. In particular, the responses of FM roots and root hairs to N or any other nutrient have not previously been reported. Given its low ...[more]

PMID: 26347768

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Project description:Abiotic stress causes disturbances in the cellular homeostasis. Re-adjustment of balance in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism therefore plays a central role in stress adaptation. However, it is currently unknown which parts of the primary cell metabolism follow common patterns under different stress conditions and which represent specific responses. To address these questions, changes in transcriptome, metabolome and ionome were analyzed in maize source leaves from plants suffering low temperature, low nitrogen (N) and low phosphorus (P) stress. The selection of maize as study object provided data directly from an important crop species and the so far underexplored C4 metabolism. Growth retardation was comparable under all tested stress conditions. The only primary metabolic pathway responding similar to all stresses was nitrate assimilation, which was down-regulated. The largest group of commonly regulated transcripts followed the expression pattern: down under low temperature and low N, but up under low P. Several members of this transcript cluster could be connected to P metabolism and correlated negatively to different phosphate concentration in the leaf tissue. Accumulation of starch under low temperature and low N stress, but decrease in starch levels under low under low P conditions indicated that only low P treated leaves suffered carbon starvation. In conclusion, maize employs very different strategies for management of nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism under stress. While nitrate assimilation was regulated depending on demand by growth processes, phosphate concentrations changed depending on availability, thus building up reserves under excess conditions. Carbon and energy metabolism of the C4 maize leaves were particularly sensitive to P starvation. Responses of maize source leaves to low temperature, low nitrogen and low phosphorus conditions were tested in independent single-stress experiments. Seedlings were cultivated in pots containing nutrient-poor peat soil under the controlled conditions of a growth chamber. The plants were fertilized with modified Hoagland solutions, containing 15mM KNO3 and 0.5mM KH2PO4 for control conditions; for low N and low P treatment, the nutrient concentrations were reduced to 0.15mM KNO3 and 0.1mM KH2PO4, respectively. Low temperature treated plants were always supplied with control nutrient solution. Plants from the nitrogen and phosphorus experiment as well as the control temperature plants were exposed to 28Â°C during the day and 20Â°C during the night. Low temperature treatment was limited to the night period and was reduced to 4Â°C for the 10h dark period. Source leaf lamina were harvested at day 20 (low temperature experiment) or day 30 after start of germination (low nitrogen and low phosphorus experiment) for parallel analysis of transcriptome, metabolome and ion profiles. The molecular data is further supplemented by phenotypic characterization of the maize seedlings under investigation.

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Whole plant acclimation responses by finger millet to low nitrogen stress.

Publications

Whole plant acclimation responses by finger millet to low nitrogen stress.

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