Regulation of Nutrient Uptake by Plants

This book describes the mechanisms of nutrient taken up by plants at the biochemical and molecular level. This is a new concept developed over the past 30 years, primarily due to use of modern technology developed in biotechnological research, instrumentation, modern computation facilities, bioinformatics, the large volumes of information generated by use of various 'omics' and of course the dedicated hard work of a large number of  researchers.

Recent research indicates that nutrient uptake, its transport and redistribution in plants are under genetic control. There are groups of genes for each nutrient that encode transporter proteins whose functions are to acquire the specific nutrient from the soil and transport it across the plasma membrane of the root hair cells for use in plant metabolism. Deficiency or sufficiency of a plant nutrient induces different groups of genes to produce m-RNA transcripts for translation of transporter proteins. A large number of metabolic enzymes are up or down regulated in response to deficiency of plant nutrients. Morphological and metabolic adaptations in order to better acquire nutrients and use them frugally when nutrients are scarce in the growth medium can be observed in plants. Heavy metals, which are toxic to plants, induce different sets of defence mechanisms.

In 20 chapters, the book describes plants' uptake mechanisms for all the major, secondary and micronutrients, beneficial elements and heavy metals. References to research work quoted in the text are updated up to 2014 and included at the end of each chapter. Biotechnological approaches to improving nutrient use efficiency are discussed wherever such information is available. The structure and functions of transporter proteins involved in the uptake of nutrients are discussed. Additional information on some of the specific topics is provided in text boxes or as separate sections within the chapters. Lastly, the terminology used has been explained as far as possible in the text, mostly within parentheses.

Dr. Gyanendra Nath Mitra, Honorary Professor in The Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India was formerly Dean, Faculty of Agriculture and Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Soil Science and Biochemistry. His academic qualifications include M.Sc (Chemistry), Associate I.A.R.I (Soil science & Agricultural Chemistry) and Ph. D (Biochemistry). Dr. Mitra has offered courses and carried out research in diverse fields with about 100 peer reviewed publications to his credit. Post superannuation he has authored three books. The book 'Regulation of Nutrient Uptake by Plants-A Biochemical and Molecular approach' is a result of his intense effort in a span of 10 years to study thousands of research publications on the subject as they get published and use them to write different sections of 20 chapters of the Book. He has delivered a number of lectures at the Faculty level and in various seminars and symposia and published articles in journals to attract attention of the research workers and students to get informed on the topic. The author hopes that wide circulation of the book would spur more research on the subject and help in developing crop varieties with superior nutrient use efficiency and beneficial quality parameters.