SENSING, SIGNALLING, AND CONTROL OF PHOSPHATE STARVATION IN PLANTS: MOLECULAR PLAYERS AND APPLICATIONS

The availability of phosphorus (P) often limits plant growth and development. Whilst large amounts of P-fertilizers are thus used in agricultural production systems, they are a considerable cost factor, and the runoff of excessive P causes environmental damage. Moreover, global P-reserves may last for only several more generations. Cutting down on the use of P-fertilizers therefore is important, and to ultimately do so it is crucial to understand how plants sense, signal, respond to and cope with P-limitation, to determine the genes and molecular mechanisms involved, and to apply the knowledge to improve P-acquisition and P-use efficiency (PAE, PUE) of crop plant species. This chapter provides an overview of the players involved in plant P-status signalling/sensing, and outlines the approaches used to increase PAE/PUE on the basis of understanding the plant P-starvation response and the underlying signalling pathways and networks.