A developed system to extract specific responses of increment length in rice shoots under gradient changes in nitrogen concentration regimes.

Nitrogen (N) fertilization is one of the most crucial factors that contribute to increasing food production requiring the generation of rice cultivars with improved N use efficiency (NUE) to maintain yield during low N fertilizer application. To assay NUE extent, we developed a screening system to evaluate shoot growth of each rice cultivar under gradient changes in N concentrations. This system comprises a gradient hydroponic culture and growth visualization systems. The former allows gradient changes in ammonium concentrations, while the latter records the increment in shoot length of individual rice seedlings at given time periods using a fixed-point camera. We chose 69 cultivars including two controls ( Oryza sativa L. cv. Nipponbare [WRC01] and Kasalath [WRC02]) from the World Rice Core Collection to investigate shoot growth responses under ammonium-sufficient, ammonium-limited, and low ammonium concentration gradients without transplanting stress. We observed three growth patterns in response to different ammonium concentrations. Subsequently, we selected three representative cultivars (Kasalath, WRC03, and WRC05) for the characteristic responses under the different ammonium environments. Distinct expression patterns of glutamine synthetase 1;2 ( OsGS1;2 ) but OsGS1;1 were observed in response to varying ammonium concentration regimes, indicating that the expression patterns of OsGS1;2 may be a growth marker in terms of shoot growth when transitioning from ammonium-limited to low ammonium concentrations. This system with the level of OsGS1;2 allows us to screen for candidate cultivars that return high NUE in low N environments.