The Role of Nitrate Reductase and Nitrite Reductase in Plant

Plants take up nitrogen in the form of nitrate and ammonia through nitrate assimilation pathway.Nitrate assimilation is highly regulated process by two successive enzymes,nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR),which mainly controll the primary nitrogen assimilation.In higher plants,various external and endogenous factors influence the regulation of NR and NiR gene expression transcriptionally as well as post-transcriptionally.Post-translational modulation is an important mechanism to eliminate the accumulation of nitrite.Development of molecular biology methods will contribute to the research of regulatory networks of NR and NiR by creating mutants and transgenic lines.