Evaluation of Nitrogen Transfer Genes Expression in Wheat Roots and some Related Traits under Drought Stress Conditions and Application of Nitrogen Fertilizer

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

2 MSc Student, Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

Abstract

The expression of nitrogen and ammonium transfer genes in wheat roots in response to drought stress is mainly unknown. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the expression of nitrogen transfer genes (TaNRT1.1) and ammonium transfer genes (TaAMT2.1) in wheat roots in response to drought stress under limited nitrogen conditions (no nitrogen added) and sufficient nitrogen (0/3 g nitrogen per kg soil). Three genotypes (Gonbad, Morvarid and Falat) were used and water stress was applied in the vegetative stage of wheat growth. The expression of genes was determined using real-time PCR technique. The results showed that with application of N fertilizer, shoot dry weight, root and nitrogen content increased significantly under N application conditions and similar conditions were observed for drought treatments under complete irrigation conditions. Due to the different response of cultivars to the expression of the studied genes, cultivars had different responses in terms of gene expression. Generally, expression of both genes under nitrogen application was increased in line with nitrogen supply and in Pearl and Plateau cultivars expression of these genes was increased under drought stress and N application was higher. In general, Pearl cultivar was better for all traits under drought and nitrogen deficiency treatments.

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