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Systemic nutrient signalling: On the road for nitrate

Nature Plants volume 3, Article number: 17040 (2017) Cite this article

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Whole plant nutrient signalling involves bidirectional exchange of signal molecules between roots and shoots. For nitrogen uptake, in addition to the root-to-shoot delivery of nitrogen-deprivation information, a shoot-to-root path is now defined.

First, Ohkubo et al.2 reinforced their hypothesis that the perception of root-derived CEPs by CEPRs activates a shoot-to-root mobile signal by demonstrating localization of CEPR1 expression and CEP1 accumulation in shoot phloem cells, suggesting that downstream events of CEPR1 activation are associated with phloem transport. Then, a shoot vascular-specific transcriptomic analysis was performed, allowing identification of 17 candidate genes that are upregulated by CEP1 supply and downregulated by knocking out CEPR1. Given that the perception of CEP1 by CEPR1 is known to mediate NRT2.1 upregulation1, the authors screened overexpressing lines of the 17 genes for enhanced NRT2.1 expression in conditions that are usually repressive for this gene; that is, under high nitrogen supply. Among all candidate genes, the overexpression of two close glutaredoxin genes, named CEP DOWNSTREAM 1 and 2 (CEPD1/2), led specifically to an upregulation of NRT2.1.

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Figure 1: Systemic nitrogen-demand signalling involves translocation of peptides and polypeptides between roots and shoots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandrine Ruffel and Alain Gojon are at the Biochemistry and Plant Molecular Physiology Research Unit, CNRS/INRA/Montpellier SupAgro/Université de Montpellier, 2 Place Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France.,

    Sandrine Ruffel & Alain Gojon

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  1. Sandrine Ruffel
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  2. Alain Gojon
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Correspondence to Sandrine Ruffel or Alain Gojon.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ruffel, S., Gojon, A. Systemic nutrient signalling: On the road for nitrate. Nature Plants 3, 17040 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.40

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