A precise method for analyzing nitrogen use in foxtail millet

Abstract

Optimization of biological nitrogen (N) use is instrumental in ensuring higher crop yields and preventing environmental degradation due to excessive N fertilizer application. Furthermore, understanding how genetic differences differentially influence N remobilization into seeds under contrasting nitrogen nutrition regimes is crucial to our understanding of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crops in addition to enabling a deeper mechanistic understanding of the dynamics of nitrogen metabolism in plants. In this chapter, a method is proposed to precisely measure and analyze nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in a pot-based system under different nitrogen nutrition regimes in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.), a climate change-resilient C4 model crop with great promise for food security and nutrition in the twenty-first century.