{"id":2395,"date":"2019-09-05T17:21:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T09:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2019-09-05T17:21:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T09:21:28","slug":"plant-gene-discovery-help-reduce-fertilizer-pollution-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/09\/05\/plant-gene-discovery-help-reduce-fertilizer-pollution-waterways\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/img.agropages.com\/UserFiles\/FCKFile\/zkc_2019-09-04_07-59-57_280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/><\/div>\n<div><em>BTI researchers used Brachypodium distachyon (left) and Medicago truncatula (right) to discover the roles of two genes in root colonization by symbiotic fungi.<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Over-fertilization of agricultural fields is a huge environmental problem. Excess phosphorus from fertilized cropland frequently finds its way into nearby rivers and lakes. A resulting boom of aquatic plant growth can cause oxygen levels in the water to plunge, leading to fish die-offs and other harmful effects.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute have uncovered the function of a pair of plant genes that could help farmers improve phosphate capture, potentially reducing the environmental harm associated with fertilization.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41477-019-0501-1\">The work<\/a>\u00a0was published in\u00a0<em>Nature Plants<\/em>\u00a0on September 2.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The discovery stems from Maria Harrison\u2019s focus on plants\u2019 symbiotic relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Harrison is the William H. Crocker Professor at BTI and an adjunct professor in Cornell University\u2019s School of Integrative Plant Science.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>AM fungi colonize plant roots, creating an interface where the plant trades fatty acids for phosphate and nitrogen. The fungi also can help plants recover from stressful conditions, such as periods of drought.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But feeding the AM fungi with fatty acids is costly, so plants don\u2019t let this colonization go unchecked.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To discover how plants control the amount of fungal colonization, Harrison and Lena M\u00fcller, a postdoctoral scientist in her lab, looked at genes that encode short proteins called CLE peptides in the plants Medicago truncatula and Brachypodium distachyon.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>CLE peptides are involved in cellular development and response to stress, and they are present throughout the plant kingdom, from green algae to flowering plants.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The researchers found that two of these CLE genes are key modulators of AM fungal symbiosis. One gene, called CLE53, reduces colonization rates once the roots have been colonized. Another gene, CLE33, reduces colonization rates when there is plenty of phosphate available to the plant.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBeing able to control fungal colonization levels in plant roots and maintain the symbiosis even in higher phosphate conditions might be useful to a farmer,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cFor example, you may want the other beneficial effects of AM fungi, like nitrogen uptake and recovery from drought, as well as further uptake of phosphate\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div><em>\u201cBeing able to control fungal colonization levels in plant roots and maintain the symbiosis even in higher phosphate conditions might be useful to a farmer.\u201d \u2013 Maria Harrison<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\u201cYou might be able to achieve these benefits by altering the levels of these CLE peptides in the plants,\u201d Harrison added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>M\u00fcller found that the CLE peptides act through a receptor protein called SUNN. In collaboration with Harro Bouwmeester and Kristyna Flokova of the University of Amsterdam, she found that the two CLE peptides modulate the plant\u2019s synthesis of a compound called strigolactone.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Plant roots exude strigolactone into the soil, and the compound stimulates AM fungi to grow and colonize the root. Once the roots are colonized or there is plenty of phosphate, the CLE genes suppress the synthesis of strigolactone, thus reducing any further colonization by the fungi.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIn the early 2000\u2019s, researchers found that plants had a way to measure and then reduce colonization,\u201d M\u00fcller said. \u201cBut until now, nobody really understood the molecular mechanism of that dynamic.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The researchers\u2019 next steps will include figuring out the molecules that turn on the CLE genes in response to colonization and high phosphate levels.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>M\u00fcller also plans to compare the two CLE peptides from this study with additional CLE peptides that have different functions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe CLE peptides are all so similar but they have completely different functions,\u201d M\u00fcller said. \u201cIt will be very interesting to see why that is.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Co-authors on the paper included Flokova and Bouwmeester, Elise Schnabel and Julia Frugoli of Clemson University, and Zhangjun Fei and Xuepeng Sun of BTI.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (IOS-1127155) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0012460). Lena M\u00fcller was supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"tl clearfix mt10\">\n<h4 class=\"p-source c-999 cb pt5\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a class=\"c-orange fs16\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/news.agropages.com\/Media\/MediaIndex-3449.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boyce Thompson Institute<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BTI researchers used Brachypodium distachyon (left) and Medicago truncatula (right) to discover the roles of two genes in root colonization by symbiotic fungi. Over-fertilization of agricultural fields is a huge environmental problem. Excess phosphorus from fertilized cropland frequently finds its way into nearby rivers and lakes. A resulting boom of aquatic plant growth can cause&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/09\/05\/plant-gene-discovery-help-reduce-fertilizer-pollution-waterways\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways - agrinoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2019\/09\/05\/plant-gene-discovery-help-reduce-fertilizer-pollution-waterways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways - agrinoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BTI researchers used Brachypodium distachyon (left) and Medicago truncatula (right) to discover the roles of two genes in root colonization by symbiotic fungi. 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