Abiotic Stresses Downregulate Key Genes Involved in Nitrogen Uptake and Assimilation in Brassica juncea L.

Abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and extreme temperatures affect nitrogen (N) uptake and assimilation in plants. However, little is known about the regulation of N pathway genes at transcriptional level under abiotic stress conditions in Brassica juncea. In the present work, genes encoding nitrate transporters (NRT), ammonium transporters (AMT), nitrate reductase (NR), nitrite reductase (NiR), glutamine synthetase (GS), glutamate synthase (GOGAT), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), asparagines synthetase (ASN) were cloned from Brassica juncea L. var. Varuna. The deduced protein sequences were analyzed to predict their subcellular localization, which confirmed localization of all the proteins in their respective cellular organelles. The protein sequences were also subjected to conserved domain identification, which confirmed presence of characteristic domains in all the proteins, indicating their putative functions. Moreover, expression of these genes was studied after 1h and 24h of salt (150 mM NaCl), osmotic (250 mM Mannitol), cold (4°C) and heat (42°C) stresses. Most of the genes encoding nitrate transporters and enzymes responsible for N assimilation and remobilization were found to be downregulated under abiotic stresses. The expression of BjAMT1.2, BjAMT2, BjGS1.1, BjGDH1 and BjASN2 was downregulated after 1hr, while expression of BjNRT1.1, BjNRT2.1, BjNiR1, BjAMT2, BjGDH1 and BjASN2 was downregulated after 24h of all the stress treatments. However, expression of BjNRT1.1, BjNRT1.5 and BjGDH2 was upregulated after 1h of all stress treatments, while no gene was found to be upregulated after 24h of stress treatments, commonly. These observations indicate that expression of most of the genes is adversely affected under abiotic stress conditions, particularly under prolonged stress exposure (24h), which may be one of the reasons of reduction in plant growth and development under abiotic stresses.