Review or Special Topic

Molecular Basis and Regulation of Ammonium Transporter in Rice

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  • 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

Received date: 2009-07-13

  Online published: 2009-12-28

Supported by

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).

Abstract

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.

Cite this article

LI Bao-zhen, Mike MERRICK, LI Su-mei, LI Hong-ying, ZHU Shu-wen, SHI Wei-ming, SU Yan-hua . Molecular Basis and Regulation of Ammonium Transporter in Rice[J]. Rice Science, 2009 , 16(4) : 314 -322 . DOI: 10.1016/S1672-6308(08)60096-7

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