December 3, 2012

Source: ISB News Report
by Sigrid Heuer

Access to essential Phosphorus (P) is a constant struggle for plants, mainly due to the low P concentration in soil. High affinity transport systems are required to transfer P into cells against this steep gradient. In light of increasing fertilizer costs and finite phosphate rock reserves, it is important to begin developing strategies to ex-pand the life span of this precious natural reserve and to make better use of applied- and soil-endogenous nutri-ents. Only a few P-responsive genes have been evaluated in crops for their effect on tolerance of P deficiency under field conditions. For the identification of the major QTL Phosphorus uptake 1 (Pup1), it only took a sim-ple screening of a set of thirty diverse rice varieties under P-deficient field conditions.

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Website: http://www.isb.vt.edu

Published: December 3, 2012