Influence of Nitrogen Deficiency on Ureide Mediated Stress Resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana

The relationship between nitrogen availability and presence of heavy metal stress appear to affect development and growth of Arabidopsis thaliana plants. In this work, Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were exposed to media containing varying concentrations of nitrogen in form of NH4NO3 or KNO3 and cadmium in the form of CdCl2. When exposed to increasing cadmium stress, aln mutant lines, lacking a functional allantoinase enzyme, displayed enhanced growth and development when compared to wild type, most likely due to their high allantoin content. Increasing nitrogen concentrations appeared to decrease the amount of senescing tissue caused by exposure to cadmium stress. Growth appeared to be slightly increased in both wild type and aln mutant lines grown in media containing KNO3 as the nitrogen source, thereby supporting the importance of nitrogen source on plant growth.