Hormonal Status of Transgenic Birch with a Pine Glutamine Synthetase Gene during Rooting In Vitro and Budburst Outdoors

Improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is one of the main ways of increasing plant productivity through genetic engineering. The modification of nitrogen (N) metabolism can affect the hormonal content, but in transgenic plants, this aspect has not been sufficiently studied. Transgenic birch (Betula pubescens) plants with the pine glutamine synthetase gene GS1 were evaluated for hormone levels during rooting in vitro and budburst under outdoor conditions. In the shoots of the transgenic lines, the content of indoleacetic acid (IAA) was 1.5-3 times higher than in the wild type. The addition of phosphinothricin (PPT), a glutamine synthetase (GS) inhibitor, to the medium reduced the IAA content in transgenic plants, but it did not change in the control. In the roots of birch plants, PPT had the opposite effect. PPT decreased the content of free amino acids in the leaves of nontransgenic birch, but their content increased in GS-overexpressing plants. A three-year pot experiment with different N availability showed that the productivity of the transgenic birch line was significantly higher than in the control under N deficiency, but not excess, conditions. Nitrogen availability did not affect budburst in the spring of the fourth year; however, bud breaking in transgenic plants was delayed compared to the control. The IAA and abscisic acid (ABA) contents in the buds of birch plants at dormancy and budburst depended both on N availability and the transgenic status. These results enable a better understanding of the interaction between phytohormones and nutrients in woody plants.

Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing for Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Plants

Low nitrogen availability is one of the main limiting factors for plant growth and development, and high doses of N fertilizers are necessary to achieve high yields in agriculture. However, most N is not used by plants and pollutes the environment. This situation can be improved by enhancing the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in plants. NUE is a complex trait driven by multiple interactions between genetic and environmental factors, and its improvement requires a fundamental understanding of the key steps in plant N metabolism—uptake, assimilation, and remobilization. This review summarizes two decades of research into bioengineering modification of N metabolism to increase the biomass accumulation and yield in crops. The expression of structural and regulatory genes was most often altered using overexpression strategies, although RNAi and genome editing techniques were also used. Particular attention was paid to woody plants, which have great economic importance, play a crucial role in the ecosystems and have fundamental differences from herbaceous species. The review also considers the issue of unintended effects of transgenic plants with modified N metabolism, e.g., early flowering—a research topic which is currently receiving little attention. The future prospects of improving NUE in crops, essential for the development of sustainable agriculture, using various approaches and in the context of global climate change, are discussed.

…Fell Upas Sits, the Hydra-Tree of Death †, or the Phytotoxicity of Trees

The use of natural products that can serve as natural herbicides and insecticides is a promising direction because of their greater safety for humans and environment. Secondary metabolites of plants that are toxic to plants and insects-allelochemicals-can be used as such products. Woody plants can produce allelochemicals, but they are studied much less than herbaceous species. Meanwhile, there is a problem of interaction of woody species with neighboring plants in the process of introduction or invasion, co-cultivation with agricultural crops (agroforestry) or in plantation forestry (multiclonal or multispecies plantations). This review describes woody plants with the greatest allelopathic potential, allelochemicals derived from them, and the prospects for their use as biopesticides. In addition, the achievement of and the prospects for the use of biotechnology methods in relation to the allelopathy of woody plants are presented and discussed.

Effect of Glutamine Synthetase Gene Overexpression in Birch (Betula pubescens) Plants on Auxin Content and Rooting in vitro

The effects of transformation of downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) with the GS1 gene encoding the cytosolic form of glutamine synthetase on the rooting of plants in vitro was studied. The transgenic plants had an elevated content of glutamine as well as glutamic and aspartic acids and rooted more rapidly than the control plants. Rooting on a medium containing the glutamine synthetase inhibitor phosphinothricin prevented the accumulation of auxin in birch plants carrying the GS1 gene, indicating the involvement of this enzyme in raising the level of auxins in the transgenic plants. The correlation between the increase in the auxin levels in the transgenic plants carrying the glutamine synthetase gene and the increase in the rooting rate is shown for the first time.

Influence of Nitrogen Availability on Growth of Two Transgenic Birch Species Carrying the Pine GS1a Gene

An alternative way to increase plant productivity through the use of nitrogen fertilizers is to improve the efficiency of nitrogen utilization via genetic engineering. The effects of overexpression of pine glutamine synthetase (GS) gene and nitrogen availability on growth and leaf pigment levels of two Betula species were studied. Untransformed and transgenic plants of downy birch (B. pubescens) and silver birch (B. pendula) were grown under open-air conditions at three nitrogen regimes (0, 1, or 10 mM) for one growing season. The transfer of the GS1a gene led to a significant increase in the height of only two transgenic lines of nine B. pubescens, but three of five B. pendula transgenic lines were higher than the controls. In general, nitrogen supply reduced the positive effect of the GS gene on the growth of transgenic birch plants. No differences in leaf pigment levels between control and transgenic plants were found. Nitrogen fertilization increased leaf chlorophyll content in untransformed plants but its effect on most of the transgenic lines was insignificant. The results suggest that birch plants carrying the GS gene use nitrogen more efficiently, especially when growing in nitrogen deficient soil. Transgenic lines were less responsive to nitrogen supply in comparison to wild-type plants.