Markedly different gene expression in wheat grown with organic or inorganic fertilizer.

ABSTRACT: Nitrogen is the major determinant of crop yield and quality and the precise management of nitrogen fertilizer is an important issue for farmers and environmentalists. Despite this, little is known at the level of gene expression about the response of field crops to different amounts and forms of nitrogen fertilizer. Here we use expressed sequence tag (EST)-based wheat microarrays in combination with the oldest continuously running agricultural experiment in the world to show that gene expression is significantly influenced by the amount and form of nitrogenous fertilizer. In the Broadbalk winter wheat experiment at Rothamsted in the United Kingdom and at three other diverse test sites, we show that specific genes have surprisingly different expression levels in the grain endosperm when nit

SUBMITTER: Lu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559878 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature