Potential Networks of Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium Channels and Transporters in Arabidopsis Roots at a Single Cell Resolution

Abstract

Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are three major macronutrients essential for plant life. These nutrients are acquired and transported by several large families of transporters expressed in plant roots. However, it remains largely unknown how these transporters are distributed in different cell-types that work together to transfer the nutrients from the soil to different layers of root cells and eventually reach vasculature for massive flow. Using the single cell transcriptomics data from Arabidopsis roots, we profiled the transcriptional patterns of putative nutrient transporters in different root cell-types. Such analyses identified a number of uncharacterized NPK transporters expressed in the root epidermis to mediate NPK uptake and distribution to the adjacent cells. Some transport genes showed cortex- and endodermis-specific expression to direct the nutrient flow toward the vasculature. For long-distance transport, a variety of transporters were shown to express and potentially function in the xylem and phloem. In the context of subcellular distribution of mineral nutrients, the NPK transporters at subcellular compartments were often found to show ubiquitous expression patterns, which suggests function in house-keeping processes. Overall, these single cell transcriptomic analyses provide working models of nutrient transport from the epidermis across the cortex to the vasculature, which can be further tested experimentally in the future.

Keywords: NPK transport networks; expression analysis; nitrate transport; nutrient transporters; phosphate transport; potassium transport; root single cell transcriptomics.