Can no signaling and its metabolism be used to improve nutrient use efficiency?: toward a research agenda

One important issue to be faced by modern agriculture is ensuring an efficient use of the essential nutrients taken up from the soil by crops, thus helping to reduce the economic costs and by-side environmental effects derived from addition of fertilizers, which -frequently- involve the use of non-renewable resources. Improving use efficiency of the major nutrients contained in these fertilizers, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), can be afforded through multiple strategies and must be thought in concert with the prevalence of a panoply of biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, simultaneous attention must be paid to the signaling network involved in setting Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) and to the acclimation of plants to a wide range of environments. Nitric Oxide (NO) has been shown to influence some aspects of N, P and K nutrition as well as the response of plants to several stress conditions (Buet et al., 2019; Kolbert et al., 2019). The possibility to use NO metabolism/signaling to improve NUE has been recently contemplated (Del Castello et al., 2020). However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how NO manipulation can be readily used to improve NUE. In this opinion article, we highlight the unknowns that must be known in order to make that use feasible while proposing some priorities for a research agenda. Given the various roles covered by NO in plants, special attention should be paid to the occurrence of unwanted collateral effects derived from NO manipulation.We emphasize that the use of NO to improve NUE will require deep knowledge on the signaling network involved, as well as a suitable quantitative assessment of NUE and its components.

Instituto de Fisiología Vegetal

Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales