Project description:Plant nutrition takes advantage by the simultaneous presence of more N forms in the rhizosphere. In the last decades the interplay between ammonium and nitrate acquisition systems in roots has been deeply investigated. Although widely used as fertilizers, the occurrence of cross connection between urea and ammonium nutrition has been scarcely studied in plants, especially at molecular level. In a recent paper we provided evidence that maize plants fed with urea and ammonium mix showed a better N-uptake efficiency than plants fed with ammonium or urea alone. To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this response, transcriptomic and metabolomic changes occurring in maize plants were investigated. Transcriptomic analyses indicated that several transporters and enzymes involved in N-nutrition were found upregulated by all three N-treatments (AMT1.3, NRT1.1, NRT2.1, GS1, GOGAT, GDH), confirming that urea is a direct source of N for plants. Depending on N-form available in nutrient solution a peculiar response at transcriptomic and metabolomic level was observed, especially after 24 hours of treatment. In comparison to one single N-form, urea and ammonium mix induced a prompt assimilation of N, characterized by an overaccumulation of main amino acids in shoots, and an upregulation of ZmAMT1.1. Moreover even a peculiar modulation of aquaporins, carbonic anydrases, glutamine synthetase, amino aspartate, as well as the glycolysis-TCA cycle was induced in roots by urea and ammonium mix. Depending on N-form available in the external media, even changes in phytohormone’s composition were observed in maize (CKs, ABA, JA); in particular, already after 24 hours of treatment, urea induced the accumulation of trans-zeatin in shoots. Through a multiomics approach, we provide for the first time molecular characterization of maize response to urea and ammonium nutrition. This study paves the way to formulate guidelines for the optimization of N fertilization of crops to improve the N use efficiency in plants and therefore limit N losses in the environment.

Project description:Purpose: RNA-seq technology was used to profile the transcriptome of a Chinese strain of A. anophagefferens that was grown on urea, nitrate, and a mixture of urea and nitrate, and that was under N-replete, limited and recovery conditions to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie nitrate and urea utilization. Methods: mRNA profiles of Aureococcus anophagefferens that was grown on urea, nitrate, and a mixture of urea and nitrate, and that was under N-replete, limited and recovery conditions were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina HiSeq 2000. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed by aligning to reference genome and transcript using SOAPaligner/SOAP2 (version 2.21). Results: Deconvolution and filtering of raw reads yielded a mean of 6,938,798 reads (range: 6,539,842 to 7,242,083 reads) per individual RNA-seq library (Table 1). Subsequent alignment of the clean reads to the A. anophagefferens reference genome yielded a mean of 5,852,408 reads (84.3%) for each sample that mapped to at least one location in the A. anophagefferens genome. However, of these mapped reads, only 47.4 to 50.9% of the total reads were mapped to the reference transcript for each sample (Table 2). In A. anophagefferens grown on three different N sources, 9148 to 9526 genes were detected for each sample. A comparison of gene expression among the three N sources was performed. 322 differentially expressed genes were detected between nitrate-grown and urea-grown cells, 237 between nitrate-grown and mixture N-grown cells and 29 between urea-grown and mixture N-grown cells. Fewer differentially expressed genes between urea-grown and mixture N-grown cells were identified, which further suggested the preferred utilization of cells for urea in media with mixture N. For nitrogen-limited and recovery experiments, 707 genes were up-regulated significantly, and 766 were down-regulated significantly in N-depleted cells relative to N-replete cells. N-depleted cells exhibited a broad transcriptional response to nitrogen re-addition, with 681 genes up-regulated and 874 genes down-regulated in urea recovery cells, and 312 genes up-regulated and 688 genes down-regulated in nitrate recovery cells. Conclusions: We noted that transcripts upregulated by nitrate and N-limitation included those encoding proteins involved in amino acid, nucleotide and aminosugar transport, degradation of amides and cyanates, and nitrate assimilation pathway. The data suggest that A. anophagefferens possesses an ability to utilize a variety of dissolved organic nitrogen. Moreover, transcripts for synthesis of proteins, glutamate-derived amino acids, spermines and sterols were upregulated by urea. Transcripts encoding key enzymes that are involved in the ornithine-urea and TCA cycles were differentially regulated by urea and nitrogen concentration, which suggests that the OUC may be linked to the TCA cycle and involved in reallocation of intracellular carbon and nitrogen. These genes regulated by urea may be crucial for the rapid proliferation of A. anophagefferens when urea is provided as the N source.

Project description:Purpose: RNA-seq technology was used to profile the transcriptome of a Chinese strain of A. anophagefferens that was grown on urea, nitrate, and a mixture of urea and nitrate, and that was under N-replete, limited and recovery conditions to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie nitrate and urea utilization. Methods: mRNA profiles of Aureococcus anophagefferens that was grown on urea, nitrate, and a mixture of urea and nitrate, and that was under N-replete, limited and recovery conditions were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina HiSeq 2000. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed by aligning to reference genome and transcript using SOAPaligner/SOAP2 (version 2.21). Results: Deconvolution and filtering of raw reads yielded a mean of 6,938,798 reads (range: 6,539,842 to 7,242,083 reads) per individual RNA-seq library (Table 1). Subsequent alignment of the clean reads to the A. anophagefferens reference genome yielded a mean of 5,852,408 reads (84.3%) for each sample that mapped to at least one location in the A. anophagefferens genome. However, of these mapped reads, only 47.4 to 50.9% of the total reads were mapped to the reference transcript for each sample (Table 2). In A. anophagefferens grown on three different N sources, 9148 to 9526 genes were detected for each sample. A comparison of gene expression among the three N sources was performed. 322 differentially expressed genes were detected between nitrate-grown and urea-grown cells, 237 between nitrate-grown and mixture N-grown cells and 29 between urea-grown and mixture N-grown cells. Fewer differentially expressed genes between urea-grown and mixture N-grown cells were identified, which further suggested the preferred utilization of cells for urea in media with mixture N. For nitrogen-limited and recovery experiments, 707 genes were up-regulated significantly, and 766 were down-regulated significantly in N-depleted cells relative to N-replete cells. N-depleted cells exhibited a broad transcriptional response to nitrogen re-addition, with 681 genes up-regulated and 874 genes down-regulated in urea recovery cells, and 312 genes up-regulated and 688 genes down-regulated in nitrate recovery cells. Conclusions: We noted that transcripts upregulated by nitrate and N-limitation included those encoding proteins involved in amino acid, nucleotide and aminosugar transport, degradation of amides and cyanates, and nitrate assimilation pathway. The data suggest that A. anophagefferens possesses an ability to utilize a variety of dissolved organic nitrogen. Moreover, transcripts for synthesis of proteins, glutamate-derived amino acids, spermines and sterols were upregulated by urea. Transcripts encoding key enzymes that are involved in the ornithine-urea and TCA cycles were differentially regulated by urea and nitrogen concentration, which suggests that the OUC may be linked to the TCA cycle and involved in reallocation of intracellular carbon and nitrogen. These genes regulated by urea may be crucial for the rapid proliferation of A. anophagefferens when urea is provided as the N source. Seven mRNA samples for Aureococcus anophagefferens were sequencd using Illumina HiSeqTM 2000, including three samples that was grown on urea, nitrate, and a mixture of urea and nitrate, and four samples that was under N-replete, limited and recovery conditions

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Transcriptional characterization of maize roots in response to urea and nitrate

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