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Review
. 2023 Apr 18:14:1121073.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1121073. eCollection 2023.

Nitrogen use efficiency-a key to enhance crop productivity under a changing climate

Prabhu Govindasamy  1 , Senthilkumar K Muthusamy  2 , Muthukumar Bagavathiannan  3 , Jake Mowrer  3 , Prasanth Tej Kumar Jagannadham  4 , Aniruddha Maity  5 , Hanamant M Halli  6 , Sujayananad G K  7 , Rajagopal Vadivel  6 , Das T K  1 , Rishi Raj  1 , Vijay Pooniya  1 , Subhash Babu  1 , Sanjay Singh Rathore  1 , Muralikrishnan L  8 , Gopal Tiwari  1
Affiliations
Review

Nitrogen use efficiency-a key to enhance crop productivity under a changing climate

Prabhu Govindasamy et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is an essential element required for the growth and development of all plants. On a global scale, N is agriculture's most widely used fertilizer nutrient. Studies have shown that crops use only 50% of the applied N effectively, while the rest is lost through various pathways to the surrounding environment. Furthermore, lost N negatively impacts the farmer's return on investment and pollutes the water, soil, and air. Therefore, enhancing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is critical in crop improvement programs and agronomic management systems. The major processes responsible for low N use are the volatilization, surface runoff, leaching, and denitrification of N. Improving NUE through agronomic management practices and high-throughput technologies would reduce the need for intensive N application and minimize the negative impact of N on the environment. The harmonization of agronomic, genetic, and biotechnological tools will improve the efficiency of N assimilation in crops and align agricultural systems with global needs to protect environmental functions and resources. Therefore, this review summarizes the literature on nitrogen loss, factors affecting NUE, and agronomic and genetic approaches for improving NUE in various crops and proposes a pathway to bring together agronomic and environmental needs.

Keywords: NUE; QTLs; conservation tillage system; nitrogen assimilation; nitrogen loss.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Different pathways of N2O production in soil (Kool et al., 2011).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three different process types regarding the effects of returning plant residues on soil inorganic N over the limited experimental period (Chen et al., 2014).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average nitrogen use efficiency in different countries over the years (source: Lassaletta et al., 2014). https://ourworldindata.org/fertilizers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of important nitrogen-responsive miRNAs and their transcription factor targets involved in nitrogen starvation response.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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