Elevated CO2 plus chronic warming reduce nitrogen uptake and levels or activities of nitrogen-uptake and -assimilatory proteins in tomato roots

Abstract

Atmospheric CO₂ enrichment is expected to often benefit plant growth, despite causing global warming and nitrogen (N) dilution in plants. Most plants primarily procure N as inorganic nitrate (NO₃^- ) or ammonium (NH₄⁺ ), using membrane-localized transport proteins in roots, which are key targets for improving N use. Although interactive effects of elevated CO₂ , chronic warming and N form on N relations are expected, these have not been studied. In this study, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants were grown at two levels of CO₂ (400 or 700 ppm) and two temperature regimes (30 or 37°C), with NO₃^- or NH₄⁺ as the N source. Elevated CO₂ plus chronic warming severely inhibited plant growth, regardless of N form, while individually they had smaller effects on growth. Although %N in roots was similar among all treatments, elevated CO₂ plus warming decreased (1) N-uptake rate by roots, (2) total protein concentration in roots, indicating an inhibition of N assimilation and (3) shoot %N, indicating a potential inhibition of N translocation from roots to shoots. Under elevated CO₂ plus warming, reduced NO₃^- -uptake rate per g root was correlated with a decrease in the concentration of NO₃^- -uptake proteins per g root, reduced NH₄⁺ uptake was correlated with decreased activity of NH₄⁺ -uptake proteins and reduced N assimilation was correlated with decreased concentration of N-assimilatory proteins. These results indicate that elevated CO₂ and chronic warming can act synergistically to decrease plant N uptake and assimilation; hence, future global warming may decrease both plant growth and food quality (%N).