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. 1984 Aug;75(4):1099–1103. doi: 10.1104/pp.75.4.1099

Effect of Ammonium on Nitrate Utilization by Roots of Dwarf Bean

Hans Breteler 1, Marco Siegerist 1,1
PMCID: PMC1067060  PMID: 16663742

Abstract

The effect of exogenous NH4+ on NO3 uptake and in vivo NO3 reductase activity (NRA) in roots of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv Witte Krombek was studied before, during, and after the apparent induction of root NRA and NO3 uptake. Pretreatment with NH4Cl (0.15-50 millimolar) affected neither the time pattern nor the steady state rate of NO3 uptake.

When NH4+ was given at the start of NO3 nutrition, the time pattern of NO3 uptake was the same as in plants receiving no NH4+. After 6 hours, however, the NO3 uptake rate (NUR) and root NRA were inhibited by NH4+ to a maximum of 45% and 60%, respectively.

The response of the NUR of NO3-induced plants depended on the NH4Cl concentration. Below 1 millimolar NH4+, the NUR declined immediately and some restoration occurred in the second hour. In the third hour, the NUR became constant. In contrast, NH4+ at 2 millimolar and above caused a rapid and transient stimulation of NO3 uptake, followed again by a decrease in the first, a recovery in the second, and a steady state in the third hour. Maximal inhibition of steady state NUR was 50%. With NO3-induced plants, root NRA responded less and more slowly to NH4+ than did NUR.

Methionine sulfoximine and azaserine, inhibitors of glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthase, respectively, relieved the NH4+ inhibition of the NUR of NO3-induced plants. We conclude that repression of the NUR by NH4+ depends on NH4+ assimilation. The repression by NH4+ was least at the lowest and highest NH4+ levels tested (0.04 and 25 millimolar).

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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