TY - JOUR AU - Pii, Youry AU - Alessandrini, Massimiliano AU - Dall’Osto, Luca AU - Guardini, Katia AU - Prinsi, Bhakti AU - Espen, Luca AU - Zamboni, Anita AU - Varanini, Zeno PY - 2016 M3 - Original Research TI - Time-Resolved Investigation of Molecular Components Involved in the Induction of NO3– High Affinity Transport System in Maize Roots JO - Frontiers in Plant Science UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2016.01657 VL - 7 SN - 1664-462X N2 - The induction, i.e., the rapid increase of nitrate (NO3) uptake following the exposure of roots to the anion, was studied integrating physiological and molecular levels in maize roots. Responses to NO3 treatment were characterized in terms of changes in NO3 uptake rate and plasma membrane (PM) H+-ATPase activity and related to transcriptional and protein profiles of NRT2, NRT3, and PM H+-ATPase gene families. The behavior of transcripts and proteins of ZmNRT2s and ZmNRT3s suggested that the regulation of the activity of inducible high-affinity transport system (iHATS) is mainly based on the transcriptional/translational modulation of the accessory protein ZmNRT3.1A. Furthermore, ZmNRT2.1 and ZmNRT3.1A appear to be associated in a ∼150 kDa oligomer. The expression trend during the induction of the 11 identified PM H+-ATPase transcripts indicates that those mainly involved in the response to NO3 treatment are ZmHA2 and ZmHA4. Yet, partial correlation between the gene expression, protein levels and enzyme activity suggests an involvement of post-transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms of regulation. A non-denaturing Deriphat-PAGE approach allowed demonstrating for the first time that PM H+-ATPase can occur in vivo as hexameric complex together with the already described monomeric and dimeric forms. ER -