Over-expression of the rice OsAMT1-1 gene increases ammonium uptake and content, but impairs growth and development of plants under high ammonium nutrition
Mohammad S. Hoque A B , Josette Masle A , Michael K. Udvardi C , Peter R. Ryan B and Narayana M. Upadhyaya B DA Research School of Biological Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2000, Australia.
B CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
C Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2000, Australia. Current address: Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
D Corresponding author. Email: Narayana.Upadhyaya@csiro.au
Functional Plant Biology 33(2) 153-163 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP05165
Submitted: 5 July 2005 Accepted: 21 September 2005 Published: 3 February 2006
Abstract
A transgenic approach was undertaken to investigate the role of a rice ammonium transporter (OsAMT1-1) in ammonium uptake and consequent ammonium assimilation under different nitrogen regimes. Transgenic lines overexpressing OsAMT1-1 were produced by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of two rice cultivars, Taipei 309 and Jarrah, with an OsAMT1-1 cDNA gene construct driven by the maize ubiquitin promoter. Transcript levels of OsAMT1-1 in both Taipei 309 and Jarrah transgenic lines correlated positively with transgene copy number. Shoot and root biomass of some transgenic lines decreased during seedling and early vegetative stage compared to the wild type, especially when grown under high (2 mm) ammonium nutrition. Transgenic plants, particularly those of cv. Jarrah recovered in the mid-vegetative stage under high ammonium nutrition. Roots of the transgenic plants showed increased ammonium uptake and ammonium content. We conclude that the decreased biomass of the transgenic lines at early stages of growth might be caused by the accumulation of ammonium in the roots owing to the inability of ammonium assimilation to match the greater ammonium uptake.
Keywords: ammonium transporter, ammonium uptake, Oryza sativa, OsAMT1-1 over-expression.
Acknowledgments
MS Hoque was supported by a PhD scholarship from the CRC for Plant Sciences, Canberra, Australia and by supplementary funding from the Australian National University (Research of Biological Sciences and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). Transgenic work was carried out at CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, ACT and some of the physiological studies were conducted at the Research School of Biological Sciences, ANU, Canberra, Australia. We thank Drs Brent Kaiser, John Watson, Qian-Hao Zhu and Ramesh Bhat for critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank the technical staff from the Rice Functional Genomics Group, CSIRO Plant Industry for their assistance and Dr SC Wong from the Environmental Biology Group at RSBS for setting up the automatic flow-through nutrient system.
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