Abstract: | Influx of nitrate into the roots of intact barley plants wasfollowed over periods of 115 min using nitrogen-13 asa tracer. Based on measurements taken over 15 min from a rangeof external nitrate concentrations (0·2250 mmolm3), the kinetic parameters of influx, Imax and Km, werecalculated. Compared with plants grown in the presence of nitrate throughout,plants that had been starved of N for 3 d showed a significantlygreater value ofImax for 13N-nitrate influx (by a factor of1·41·8), but a similar value of Km (1214mmol m3). Pre-treating N-starved plants with nitratefor about 5 h further increased the subsequent rate of 13N-nitrateinflux, but had little effect in the unstarved controls. Allowingfor this induction of additional nitrate transport, the differencein rates of nitrate influx in control and N-starved plants wassufficient to account for the previously-observed differencein net uptake by the two groups of plants. In barley plants grown without any exposure to nitrate, butwith ammonium as N-source, both Imax and Km for subsequent 13N-nitrateinflux were significantly decreased (by about one-half) comparedwith the corresponding nitrate-grown controls. The importance of changes in the rate of influx in the regulationof net uptake of nitrate is discussed. Key words: Ion transport, nitrate, influx, kinetic parameters, N-deficiency |