RICE SCIENCE ›› 2009, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (4): 314-322 .DOI: 10.1016/S1672-6308(08)60096-7

• 综述与专论 • 上一篇    下一篇

Molecular Basis and Regulation of Ammonium Transporter in Rice

LI Bao-zhen1, Mike MERRICK2, LI Su-mei1, LI Hong-ying1, ZHU Shu-wen1, SHI Wei-ming1, SU Yan-hua1   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; 2Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
  • 收稿日期:2009-07-13 出版日期:2009-12-28 发布日期:2009-12-28
  • 通讯作者: SHI Wei-ming;SU Yan-hua
  • 基金资助:

    the China Post- doctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 20070421031), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB109303), Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KSCX2-YW-N-002), and MM acknowledges support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK).

摘要: Rice grows in flooded paddy fields and takes up ammonium as the preferred nitrogen (N) source. Ammonium uptake is facilitated by a family of integral membrane proteins known as ammonium transporters found in all domains of life. However, the molecular mechanism and functional characteristics of the ammonium transporters (AMT) in rice have not been determined in detail yet. In this review, we report a genome-wide search for AMT genes in rice, resulting in the increase of the number of potential AMT proteins to at least 12, including members of both the alpha and beta sub-groups. Analysis of the predicted protein sequences for the 12 OsAMT proteins identified many conserved phosphorylation sites in both the alpha and beta group members, which could potentially play a role in controlling the activity of the transporters. Present knowledge of the expression of rice AMT genes is also summarized in detail. Future studies should focus on the structural and functional characteristics of OsAMT proteins to provide insight into the mechanism of ammonium uptake and its regulation in rice. Such research could improve utilization and decrease wastage of N fertilizer in rice cultivation.

关键词: rice, ammonium transporter, expression regulation, phosphorylation site