TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wang, Wei-Hong
A1  - Köhler, Barbara
A1  - Cao, Feng-Qiu
A1  - Liu, Guo-Wei
A1  - Gong, Yuan-Yong
A1  - Sheng, Song
A1  - Song, Qi-Chao
A1  - Cheng, Xiao-Yuan
A1  - Garnett, Trevor
A1  - Okamoto, Mamoru
A1  - Qin, Rui
A1  - Müller-Röber, Bernd
A1  - Tester, Mark
A1  - Liu, Lai-Hua
T1  - Rice DUR3 mediates high-affinity urea transport and plays an effective role in improvement of urea acquisition and utilization when expressed in Arabidopsis
JF  - New phytologist : international journal of plant science
N2  - 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.
KW  - high-affinity transporter
KW  - leaf senescence
KW  - nitrogen remobilization
KW  - OsDUR3
KW  - overexpression
KW  - rice plant
KW  - urea transport and utilization
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03929.x
SN  - 0028-646X
VL  - 193
IS  - 2
SP  - 432
EP  - 444
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Malden
ER  -