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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2019, Vol. 18 Issue (12): 2691-2702    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62698-5
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TaARR1, a cytokinin response regulator gene in Triticum aestivum, is essential in plant N starvation tolerance via regulating the N acquisition and N assimilation
YANG Meng-ya*, CHEN Jia-qi*, TIAN He-yang, NI Chen-yang, XIAO Kai
College of Agronomy, Hebei Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Crop Growth Regulation of Hebei Province, Baoding 071001, P.R.China
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Abstract  
Plant N starvation response is closely associated with the N signaling components that involve transduction of the low-N cues.  In this study, we functionally characterized TaARR1, a cytokinin (CK) response regulator gene in Triticum aestivum, in mediating the N starvation adaptation in plants.  TaARR1 harbors two conserved domains specified by plant ARR family members; subcellular localization analysis indicated its target onto nucleus after endoplasmic reticulum assortment.  TaARR1 displayed modified expression upon the N starvation stressor, showing upregulated expression in roots and leaves over a 27-h N starvation treatment and whose induced transcripts were gradually recovered along with progression of the N recovery treatment.  The tobacco lines overexpressing TaARR1 displayed improved low-N stress tolerance, displaying enlarged phenotype, increased biomass and N accumulation, and enhanced glutamine synthetase (GS) activities compared with wild type (WT) following the N starvation treatment.  Expression analysis on genes encoding the nitrate transporter (NRT) and GS proteins in Nicotiana tabacum revealed that NtNRT2.2 and NtGS3 are upregulated in expression in the N-deprived transgenic lines, whose expression patterns were contrasted to other above family genes that were unaltered on transcripts between the transgenic lines and WT.  Transgene analysis validated the function of NtNRT2.2 and NtGS3 in regulating N accumulation, GS activity, growth traits, and N use efficiency in plants.  These results suggested the internal connection between the TaARR1-mediated N starvation tolerance and the modified transcription of distinct N acquisition- and assimilation-associated genes.  Our investigation together indicates that TaARR1 is essential in plant N starvation adaptation due to the gene function in transcriptionally regulating distinct NRT and GS genes that affect plant N uptake and assimilation under the N starvation condition.
Keywords:  wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)        cytokinin response regulator       gene expression        N starvation        functional characterization  
Received: 21 September 2018   Accepted:
Fund: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571664 and 31671686) and the Key Research and Development Project of Hebei, China (17962901D).
Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence XIAO Kai, E-mail: xiaokai@hebau.edu.cn    
About author:  * These authors contributed equally to this study.

Cite this article: 

YANG Meng-ya, CHEN Jia-qi, TIAN He-yang, NI Chen-yang, XIAO Kai. 2019. TaARR1, a cytokinin response regulator gene in Triticum aestivum, is essential in plant N starvation tolerance via regulating the N acquisition and N assimilation. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 18(12): 2691-2702.

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