Obiettivo
Understanding how plants take up ammonium and respond to the presence of this nutrient is a primary requirement for developing new fertilization strategies in agricultural plant production that allow to increase the utilization efficiency of nitrogen fertilizers and decrease nitrogen losses in agroecosystems. This project focuses on fundamental aspects of the function and regulation of the sensing and membrane transport of ammonium by a comparative study in two plant model systems, Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis.
Physiological and morphological adaptations to localized ammonium supply and their dependence on the regulatory circuits for ammonium assimilation, light, and chemotaxis in Chlamydomonas or the re-direction of root growth in Arabidopsis will be analyzed by using an array of biochemical, genetic, and molecular tools developed in the participating labs. The genes and other components affected in Chlamydomonas mutants defective in chemotaxis, ammonium transport, and ammonium sensing and regulatory circuits will be determined.
The role of Arabidopsis AMT genes in re-orienting Arabidopsis root growth will also be studied. The heterologous expression of Arabidopsis AMT genes in Chlamydomonas and vice versa will be attempted in order to identify common regulatory and signalling elements. It is expected that the required exchange of techniques, material and personnel to fulfil the proposed research programme will lead to a synergistic scientific research progress and establish a firm and long-lasting cooperation among the participating groups.
Parole chiave
Argomento(i)
Data not availableInvito a presentare proposte
Data not availableMeccanismo di finanziamento
Data not availableCoordinatore
CORDOBA
Spagna