Background:Nitrogen(N)is a required macronutrient for cotton growth and productivity.Excessive N fertilizers are applied in agriculture for crop yield maximization,which also generates environmental pollution.Improving crop N use efficiency(NUE)is the most economical and desirable way of reducing fertilizer application and environmental pollution.NUE has been an important issue in cotton.So far there is no report on cotton NUE improvement via trans-genic approach.Nin-like proteins(NLP)are transcription factors regulating NUE.We previously demonstrated that AtNLP7 improved NUE and biomass when overexpressed in Arabidopsis.However,it is not known whether AtNLP7can be used to improve NUE in crops.Results:To test the feasibility,we expressed AtNLP7 in cotton and evaluated NUE and yield of the transgenic cotton in the field.Transgenic cotton showed improved NUE and yield under both low and high N conditions.In addi-tion,plant biomass,amount of absorbed N,N contents,activities of N-assimilating enzymes,and the expression of N-related marker genes were significantly increased in transgenic cotton compared with the wild type control,sug-gesting that AtNLP7enhances NUE in cotton.Conclusion:Together,our results demonstrate that AtNLP7 is a promising candidate to improve NUE and yield in cotton.

School of Life Sciences,Division of Molecular&Cell Biophysics,Hefei National Science Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale,University of Science and Technology of China,The Innovative Academy of Seed Design,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Hefei,Anhui 230026,China;lnstitute of Cotton Research,Shanxi Agricultural University,Yuncheng 044000,China;College of Life Sciences,Shanxi Agricultural University,Taiyuan 030031,China

[1]JAN Sami Ullah;LIAQAT Ayesha;ZHU Yonghong;LI Jing;ZHANG Huangyang;ABDALLA Mohnad;WU Jie;XIANG Chengbin;WU Shenjie;ALFATIH Alamin-.Arabidopsis NLP7 improves nitrogen use efficiency and yield in cotton)[J].棉花研究（英文）,2022(01):12-21

NLP7,AtNLP7,AtNLP7can,AtNLP7enhances

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