Scientists Discover Key Genes and Proteins Plants Use to Redirect Nitrogen
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have identified networks of genes and gene regulators that allow plants to direct nitrogen to different parts. Scientists have known that plants actively redirect nitrogen to their different parts, especially when the amount of nitrogen available in the soil is limited. But they have not identified the actual genes and proteins that add up to a plant-wide nitrogen regulatory system.
ARS molecular biologist Doreen Ware and her team identified 23 proteins called “transcription factors” that play specific roles in how plants use nitrogen. Ware traced these transcription factors back to the individual genes that control them and then forward to the genes on which they act…
