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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 37(1)

Ammonium tolerance and the regulation of two cytosolic glutamine synthetases in the roots of sorghum

Redouane El Omari A B , Marina Rueda-López A , Concepción Avila A , Remedios Crespillo A , Mohamed Nhiri B and Francisco M. Cánovas A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica, Instituto Andaluz de Biotecnología, Unidad Asociada UMA-CSIC, Campus Universitario de Teatinos, Universidad de Málaga, 29071-Málaga, Spain.

B Laboratoire de Biochimie et Génétique Moléculaire, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Abdelmalek Essaâdi, Tanger Principal BP 416, Morocco.

C Corresponding author. Email: canovas@uma.es

Functional Plant Biology 37(1) 55-63 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09162
Submitted: 24 June 2009  Accepted: 4 September 2009   Published: 5 January 2010

Abstract

Tolerance to ammonium nutrition in plants can be related to their ability to detoxify ammonium via nitrogen assimilation in roots. Here, we report that sorghum–sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor L. × S. bicolor var. sudanense) hybrids exhibited enhanced biomass production under high levels of inorganic nitrogen supply as well as increased capacity for nitrogen assimilation in roots. Glutamine synthetase (GS, EC 6.3.1.2) activity and protein accumulated in roots at increasing concentrations of either nitrate or ammonium, with particularly high levels of GS in ammonium-treated plants. Ammonium but not nitrate differentially regulated two distinct cytosolic GS (GS1) isoforms composed by polypeptides of similar size but different charge. The comparative analysis of GS gene sequences and the deduced GS1 polypeptides suggested that the two GS1 isoforms were the expression products of SbGln1.2 and SbGln1.3 genes. SbGln1.3 expression was shown to be upregulated by high levels of inorganic nitrogen supply, with a maximal abundance of SbGln1.3 transcripts in ammonium-grown plants. SbGln1.2 expression was uniform along the root axis meanwhile protein and transcript levels for SbGln1.3 were particularly abundant in the upper part of the axis where lateral roots are prominent. Kinetic analysis revealed that the two GS1 isoenzymes have relatively low-affinity for ammonium ions. The spatial distribution of low-affinity GS1 isoenzymes would provide a sustained glutamine biosynthesis at high levels of ammonium supply and may represent at the same time an efficient system of ammonium detoxification. Such a mechanism may prevent transport of ammonium to leaves alleviating symptoms of toxicity and therefore contributing to sorghum ammonium tolerance.

Additional keywords: biomass production, nitrate, nitrogen assimilation.


Acknowledgements

This research was supported by funds of Program AECI (A/5503/06; A/016781/08), Protars II N° 51/36, BIO2006–06216 and by Junta de Andalucía (Research Group BIO-114).


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