Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2019, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (3): 285-287.DOI: 10.11983/CBB19060

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NRT1.1B Connects Root Microbiota and Nitrogen Use in Rice

Xiaolin Wang,Ertao Wang()   

  1. Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
  • Received:2019-03-31 Accepted:2019-04-02 Online:2019-07-01 Published:2019-05-20
  • Contact: Ertao Wang

Abstract: Root-associated microbial communities in the soil play fundamental roles in plant nutrition uptake and fitness. However, how plants shape root microbial communities and how the microbes affect the fitness of their hosts remain elusive. Recently, Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough discovery that the nitrogen-use efficiency between indica and japonica rice varieties is associated with different root microbiota in rice. Nitrogen metabolism is greatly enriched in indica-enriched bacteria as compared with japonica-enriched bacteria. Rice NRT1.1B, a nitrogen sensor contributing to nitrogen use divergence between rice subspecies, is associated with the recruitment of these bacterial taxa. Inoculation of the japonica variety with indica-enriched bacteria can improve rice growth in organic nitrogen conditions in the SynCom experimental system. This work highlights the links between root microbiota and nitrogen use in rice and could be exploited to modulate the root microbiota that increase crop productivity and sustainability.

Key words: rice, NRT1.1B, root microbiota, nitrogen use