Nitrogen source effect (ammonium and nitrate) on Brachypodium distachyon B21 root transcriptome

Nitrogen (N) fertilization is essential to maximize crop production. However, around half of the applied N is lost to the environment causing water and air pollution and contributing to climate change. Understanding the natural genetic and metabolic basis underlying plants N use efficiency is of great interest to reach an agriculture with less N demand and thus, more sustainable. The study of ammonium (NH4+) nutrition is of particular interest, because it mitigates N losses due to nitrate (NO3-) leaching or denitrification. In this work, we performed gene expression analysis in the root of the model plant for C3 grasses Brachypodiyum distachyon, reference accession Bd21, grown with exclusive NH4+ or NO3- supply. 7-day old seedlings were transfered to hydroponic tanks and grown for 19 days with 2,5 mM ammonium or nitrate as exclusive source of nitrogen.