The good quality and high yield of crops are inseparable from a balanced intake of mineral nutrients. However, there are huge differences in the mineral nutrient content of different cultivated soils around the world, and serious nutrient imbalances exist in most of the cultivated land. For example, one of the typical nutrient deficiency problems in a large area of yellow-red soil in China is the imbalance of phosphorus and iron. A high iron content and little available phosphorus are likely to cause phosphorus deficiency and iron toxicity in crops. The imbalance of phosphorus and iron in soils seriously restricts crop quality and yield, and endangers China’s food security.

As early as the 1970s, plant physiologists noticed significant antagonistic interaction between phosphate and iron in plants. However, the underlying molecular mechanism modulating the signaling and homeostasis between them remains unclear. The Innovation Team of Soil-Plant Interactions at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) recently published a research paper entitled A Reciprocal Inhibitory Interplay between Phosphate and Iron Signaling in Rice in the journal Molecular Plant, reporting the antagonistic interaction between phosphate and iron signaling transduction mechanism in rice. The research found that PHRs and HRZs regulate the expression of downstream phosphorus starvation response genes and iron starvation response genes by regulating their respective protein and transcription through reciprocal inhibition, so as to modulate different changes in the supply of phosphorus and iron in soils to ensure the growth of crops. Further research found that the PHRs-HRZs molecular modules also exist in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, suggesting that the reciprocal inhibition molecular module may be ubiquitous in plants. The antagonistic interaction between phosphate and iron signaling transduction mechanism will offer a new solution to the problem of phosphorus and iron imbalance in China's yellow-red soil through molecular breeding.

The co-corresponding authors of the paper are Yi Keke, a research fellow of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, CAAS, and Ruan Wenyuan, an associate research fellow of the institute. Postdoctoral fellow Guo Meina is the first author. Professor Javier Paz-Ares from the Department of Molecular Genetics of Plants, National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC) Madrid, Spain participated in the research. Professor Yu Diqiu and research fellow Liang Gang provided important genetic material for this research. The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Basic Research Fund of the Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution, the Young Talents Project of the CAAS, and the Outstanding Young Talents Project of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, CAAS.

PI-Fe availability adaption

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1674205221003713