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JXB Advance Access originally published online on September 12, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(13):3675-3689; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern218
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Co-ordinated expression of amino acid metabolism in response to N and S deficiency during wheat grain filling

Jonathan R. Howarth1, Saroj Parmar1, Janina Jones1, Caroline E. Shepherd1, Delia-Irina Corol2, Aimee M. Galster2, Nathan D. Hawkins2, Sonia J. Miller2, John M. Baker2, Paul J. Verrier3, Jane L. Ward2, Michael H. Beale2, Peter B. Barraclough1 and Malcolm J. Hawkesford1,*

1Plant Sciences Department, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK
2National Centre for Plant and Microbial Metabolomics, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK
3Biomathematics and Bioinformatics Department, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: malcolm.hawkesford{at}bbsrc.ac

Increasing demands for productivity together with environmental concerns about fertilizer use dictate that the future sustainability of agricultural systems will depend on improving fertilizer use efficiency. Characterization of the biological processes responsible for efficient fertilizer use will provide tools for crop improvement under reduced inputs. Transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches were used to study the impact of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) deficiency on N and S remobilization from senescing canopy tissues during grain filling in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). Canopy tissue N was remobilized effectively to the grain after anthesis. S was less readily remobilized. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolite profiling revealed significant effects of suboptimal N or S supply in leaves but not in developing grain. Analysis of amino acid pools in the grain and leaves revealed a strategy whereby amino acid biosynthesis switches to the production of glutamine during grain filling. Glutamine accumulated in the first 7 d of grain development, prior to conversion to other amino acids and protein in the subsequent 21 d. Transcriptome analysis indicated that a down-regulation of the terminal steps in many amino acid biosynthetic pathways occurs to control pools of amino acids during leaf senescence. Grain N and S contents increased in parallel after anthesis and were not significantly affected by S deficiency, despite a suboptimal N:S ratio at final harvest. N deficiency resulted in much slower accumulation of grain N and S and lower final concentrations, indicating that vegetative tissue N has a greater control of the timing and extent of nutrient remobilization than S.

Key words: Affymetrix, grain filling, metabolomics, nitrogen, sulphur, transcriptomics, wheat

Received 4 June 2008; Revised 24 July 2008 Accepted 31 July 2008


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