Regulation of Lateral Root Development by Shoot-Sensed Far-Red Light via HY5 Is Nitrate-Dependent and Involves the NRT2.1 Nitrate Transporter

Plants are very effective in responding to environmental changes during competition for light and nutrients. Low Red:Far-Red (low R:FR)-mediated neighbor detection allows plants to compete successfully with other plants for available light. This above-ground signal can also reduce lateral root growth by inhibiting lateral root emergence, a process that might help the plant invest resources in shoot growth. Nitrate is an essential nutrient for plant growth and Arabidopsis thaliana responds to low nitrate conditions by enhancing nutrient uptake and reducing lateral and main root growth. There are indications that low R:FR signaling and low nitrate signaling can affect each other. It is unknown which response is prioritized when low R:FR light- and low nitrate signaling co-occur. We investigated the effect of low nitrate conditions on the low R:FR response of the A. thaliana root system in agar plate media, combined with the application of supplemental Far-Red (FR) light to the shoot. We observed that under low nitrate conditions main and lateral root growth was reduced, but more importantly, that the response of the root system to low R:FR was not present. Consistently, a loss-of-function mutant of a nitrate transporter gene NRT2.1 lacked low R:FR-induced lateral root reduction and its root growth was hypersensitive to low nitrate. ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5) plays an important role in the root response to low R:FR and we found that it was less sensitive to low nitrate conditions with regards to lateral root growth. In addition, we found that low R:FR increases NRT2.1 expression and that low nitrate enhances HY5 expression. HY5 also affects NRT2.1 expression, however, it depended on the presence of ammonium in which direction this effect was. Replacing part of the nitrogen source with ammonium also removed the effect of low R:FR on the root system, showing that changes in nitrogen sources can be crucial for root plasticity. Together our results show that nitrate signaling can repress low R:FR responses and that this involves signaling via HY5 and NRT2.1.

Automated summary

Plants respond to environmental changes through low Red:Far-Red and low nitrate signaling, which may interact with each other. It is unclear which response is prioritized when both signals co-occur.