Over-expression of OsPTR6 in rice increased plant growth at different nitrogen supplies but decreased nitrogen use efficiency at high ammonium supply

Nitrogen (N) plays a critical role in plant growth and productivity and PTR/NRT1 transporters are critical for rice growth. In this study, OsPTR6, a PTR/NRT1 transporter, was over-expressed in the Nipponbare rice cultivar by Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation using the ubiquitin (Ubi) promoter. Three single-copy T2 generation transgenic lines, named OE1, OE5 and OE6, were produced and subjected to hydroponic growth experiments in different nitrogen treatments. The results showed the plant height and biomass of the over-expression lines were increased, and plant N accumulation and glutamine synthetase (GS) activities were enhanced at 5.0 mmol/L NH4+ and 2.5 mmol/L NH4NO3. The expression of OsATM1 genes in over-expression lines showed that the OsPTR6 over expression increased OsAMT1.1, OsATM1.2 and OsAMT1.3 expression at 0.2 and 5.0 mmol/L NH4+ and 2.5 mmol/L NH4NO3. However, nitrogen utilisation efficiency (NUE) was decreased at 5.0 mmol/LNH4+. These data suggest that over-expression of the OsPTR6 gene could increase rice growth through increasing ammonium transporter expression and glutamine synthetase activity (GSA), but decreases nitrogen use efficiency under conditions of high ammonium supply.