@article{WangKoehlerCaoetal.2012,
  author    = {Wang, Wei-Hong and K{\"o}hler, Barbara and Cao, Feng-Qiu and Liu, Guo-Wei and Gong, Yuan-Yong and Sheng, Song and Song, Qi-Chao and Cheng, Xiao-Yuan and Garnett, Trevor and Okamoto, Mamoru and Qin, Rui and M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Tester, Mark and Liu, Lai-Hua},
  title     = {Rice DUR3 mediates high-affinity urea transport and plays an effective role in improvement of urea acquisition and utilization when expressed in Arabidopsis},
  series = {New phytologist : international journal of plant science},
  volume    = {193},
  journal   = {New phytologist : international journal of plant science},
  number    = {2},
  publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell},
  address   = {Malden},
  issn      = {0028-646X},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03929.x},
  pages     = {432 -- 444},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Despite the great agricultural and ecological importance of efficient use of urea-containing nitrogen fertilizers by crops, molecular and physiological identities of urea transport in higher plants have been investigated only in Arabidopsis. We performed short-time urea-influx assays which have identified a low-affinity and high-affinity (Km of 7.55 mu M) transport system for urea-uptake by rice roots (Oryza sativa). A high-affinity urea transporter OsDUR3 from rice was functionally characterized here for the first time among crops. OsDUR3 encodes an integral membrane-protein with 721 amino acid residues and 15 predicted transmembrane domains. Heterologous expression demonstrated that OsDUR3 restored yeast dur3-mutant growth on urea and facilitated urea import with a Km of c. 10 mu M in Xenopus oocytes. Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis revealed upregulation of OsDUR3 in rice roots under nitrogen-deficiency and urea-resupply after nitrogen-starvation. Importantly, overexpression of OsDUR3 complemented the Arabidopsis atdur3-1 mutant, improving growth on low urea and increasing root urea-uptake markedly. Together with its plasma membrane localization detected by green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagging and with findings that disruption of OsDUR3 by T-DNA reduces rice growth on urea and urea uptake, we suggest that OsDUR3 is an active urea transporter that plays a significant role in effective urea acquisition and utilisation in rice.},
  language  = {en}
}