Plants have evolved to express some members of the nitrate transporter 1/peptide transporter family (NPF) to uptake and transport nitrate. However, little is known of the physiological and functional roles of this family in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Here, we characterized the vascular specific transporter OsNPF2.2. Functional analysis using cDNA-injected Xenopus laevis oocytes revealed that OsNPF...

Urinary nitrate is known to be a measure of environmental exposure. Only recently an endogenous metabolic pathway resulting in nitrate synthesis was described. We have determined the concentration of nitrate expressed as nitrate/creatinine ratio in the urine of patients in whom a significant environmental nitrate load was presumed to be absent. A significant elevation of nitrates in patients wi...

An especially intriguing aspect of nutrients is their capacity to serve as signals. Nutrient signaling pathways play key roles in plant growth and development and can interact and overlap in interesting ways. In this issue, Riveras et al. (2015) report on two plant macronutrients, nitrate and calcium, and show how responses induced by nitrate depend in part on calcium signaling mechanisms. The ...

Nitrate enhanced bioremediation solubility of oxygen. Nitrate is more soluble than oxygen and is less expensive. The significance of the nitrate bioremediation at Traverse City is that the concentration of nitrate used in the bioremediation was below Federal drinking water standards. that when nitrate and nutrients were added, they could be evenly distributed In order to determine the effects o...

Long-distance transport of nitrate requires xylem loading and unloading, a successive process that determines nitrate distribution and subsequent assimilation efficiency. Here, we report the functional characterization of NRT1.8, a member of the nitrate transporter (NRT1) family in Arabidopsis thaliana. NRT1.8 is upregulated by nitrate. Histochemical analysis using promoter-beta-glucuronidase f...

Published data on nitrate (NO3-) toxicity to freshwater and marine animals are reviewed. New data on nitrate toxicity to the freshwater invertebrates Eulimnogammarus toletanus, Echinogammarus echinosetosus and Hydropsyche exocellata are also presented. The main toxic action of nitrate is due to the conversion of oxygen-carrying pigments to forms that are incapable of carrying oxygen. Nitrate to...

The effect of nitrate on symbiotic nitrogen fixation by root nodules of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L., Walp., cv. California Blackeye) and lupine (Lupinus augustifolius L., cv. Frost) plants inoculated with nitrate reductase-expressing and nitrate reductase-nonexpressing Rhizobium strains were examined. Nitrate reductase of Rhizobium bacteroids in the nodules of cowpea and lupine reduced nitrate...

Roots of decapitated maize seedlings (Zea mays L.) were exposed for 12 hours to 1.0 millimolar KNO(3) (98.5 atom per cent (15)N) in the presence and absence (control) of 0.1 millimolar p-fluorophenylalanine (FPA), an analog of the amino acid phenylalanine. FPA decreased nitrate uptake but had little effect on potassium uptake. In contrast, accumulation of both ions in the xylem exudate was grea...

Understanding how plants sense and respond to changes in nitrogen availability is the first step toward developing strategies for biotechnological applications, such as improvement of nitrogen use efficiency. However, components involved in nitrogen signaling pathways remain poorly characterized. Calcium is a second messenger in signal transduction pathways in plants, and it has been indirectly...

Microbiological reduction of soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV) has been proposed as a remediation strategy for uranium-contaminated groundwater. Nitrate is a common co-contaminant with uranium. Nitrate inhibited U(VI) reduction in acetate-amended aquifer sediments collected from a uranium-contaminated site in New Mexico. Once nitrate was depleted, both U(VI) and Fe(III) were reduced concurrently...