PLANT NUTRITION

Project leaders Stanislav Kopriva, Trevor Wang, Matthew Hills

This theme focuses on the integration of sulphur and nitrogen nutrition with carbon metabolism, particularly in Arabidopsis and in plant-microbial symbioses.

Integration of sulphur metabolism with nitrogen and carbon metabolism Using mutant and transgenic approaches in Arabidopsis, we are elucidating the signals that control sulphur assimilation in response to availability of sulphur, nitrogen and carbon in the plant. Approaches include the use of mutants defective in sugar signalling (with Mike Bevan in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology), screens for mutants defective in sulphur signalling and cross-talk using transgenic reporter plants, and metabolic analyses. In parallel, we are investigating the response of sulphur metabolism to stress (with the Department of Disease and Stress Biology). Our research on sulphur assimilation is closely integrated with research on sulphate uptake at Rothamsted Research. (Stanislav Kopriva)

Oilseed rape nutrition In future work (with Ian Bancroft in the Department of Crop Genetics) we will use information from Arabidopsis to shed new light on nutrient utilisation in a crop plant, oilseed rape. This crop receives extensive nitrogen and sulphur fertilisation, yet much of both elements remains in non-harvested tissues and is returned to the soil. We will investigate the fate of assimilated nutrients within the plant and its dependence on environmental conditions, exploiting both available genetic variation and major genes identified from Arabidopsis.

Nutrition and plant-microbe symbioses We are starting to investigate the cross-talk between, and integration of, nitrogen fixation, sulphur metabolism and carbon supply in plant symbiotic interactions with Rhizobium and with mycorrhizal fungi. This research will use existing and new mutants in nitrogen fixation and carbon metabolism in model legumes, and metabolic analyses. The work is closely allied with that on plant-microbe symbioses in the Departments of Molecular Microbiology (Allan Downie) and Disease and Stress Biology (Giles Oldroyd).

Resource development in model legumes With the Departments of Crop Genetics (Noel Ellis) and Disease and Stress Biology (Giles Oldroyd), we are developing internationally-important mutant and reverse-genetics resources for the model legume Lotus (see Lotus website). These will be particularly valuable for studying plant nutrition and primary metabolism in relation to development (see Primary Carbon Metabolism).