A new insight into root responses to external cues: Paradigm shift in nutrient sensing

Abstract

Higher plants are sessile and their growth relies on nutrients present in the soil. The acquisition of nutrients is challenging for plants. Phosphate and nitrate sensing and signaling cascades play significant role during adverse conditions of nutrient unavailability. Therefore, it is important to dissect the mechanism by which plant roots acquire nutrients from the soil. Root system architecture (RSA) exhibits extensive developmental flexibility and changes during nutrient stress conditions. Growth of root system in response to external concentration of nutrients is a joint operation of sensor or receptor proteins along with several other cytoplasmic accessory proteins. After nutrient sensing, sensor proteins start the cellular relay involving transcription factors, kinases, ubiquitin ligases and miRNA. The complexity of nutrient sensing is still nebulous and many new players need to be better studied. This review presents a survey of recent paradigm shift in the advancements in nutrient sensing in relation to plant roots.

Acute adaptation of renal phosphate transporters in the murine kidney to oral phosphate intake requires multiple signals

“…Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is an essential constituent of uni‐ and multicellular organisms. Unicellular organisms, such as yeast and bacteria, and plants use some types of Pi transporters, polyphosphates, inositol‐polyphosphates and inositol hexakisphosphate kinases (IP6 kinases) to sense and respond to environmental Pi availability 1–4 . To maintain Pi homeostasis, organisms should detect and adapt to changes in environmental and internal Pi levels.…”

“…Conclusions: (1) Acute downregulation of renal Pi transporters in response to Pi intake occurs also in the absence of PTH and FGF23 signalling, (2) when FGF23 signalling is blocked, a partial contribution of PTH is revealed, (3) IP6 kinases, intracellular Pi-sensors in yeast and bacteria, are not involved, and (4) Acute Pi does not alter PTHrp and dopamine. Thus, signals other than PTH, PTHrp, FGF23 and dopamine contribute to renal adaption.…”

Nitrate affects transcriptional regulation of UPBEAT1 and ROS localisation in roots of Zea mays L.

“…The root system is essential for providing water, minerals and anchorage to the plant. Roots have to quickly sense and respond to changes in the physical and chemical features of the soil environment (White et al 2013), and attempts to understand how they do this have focused in particular on the striking effects of nitrate (NO 3 − ) on root growth and branching (Bhardwaj et al ). NO 3 − has a dual nutritional/signalling function and can exert a profound impact on the root system architecture (RSA) by altering the number, length, angle and diameter of the roots and root hairs (Zhang et al , Shahzad and Amtmannm , Sun et al ).…”

A Panax notoginseng Root Tip Meristem Biosensor and Its Sensing Kinetics for Five Important Nitrogen Nutrients

“…Most of these studies focused on the transport of nitrogen nutrients and signal transduction in plants. However, plants must sense the nitrogen nutrient status in the environment by their roots first and then absorb and use the nitrogen according to their own requirements [13][14][15][16]. In other words, sensing is the prerequisite for absorption.…”