Plants' Fullness Mechanism Discovered by Scientists
Researchers at NYU have identified the molecular mechanism that allows plants to sense nitrogen levels, a discovery that could lead to more efficient fertilizer use. This could significantly reduce environmental damage and lower agricultural costs.
Why it matters
Improving nitrogen uptake in crops is critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the environmental impact of industrial farming.
New York University researchers have pinpointed the molecular players responsible for plants "feeling full" once they've taken up enough nitrogen - a finding that could help scientists to develop plants that absorb more nitrogen from the soil and allow farmers to reduce environmentally and economically costly fertilizer application.
"By identifying gene regulators that are sensitive to different levels and types of nitrogen, we uncovered a regulatory factor controlling nitrogen use and a key to improving nitrogen uptake and assimilation into organic nitrogen in plants," said Gloria Coruzzi , the Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor in NYU's Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and the co-senior author of the study, which appears in the journal The Plant Cell.
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