Abstract
Plants take up atmospheric nitrogen dioxide through stomata, and metabolize it to organic nitrogen compounds such as amino acids. However, it is not clear whether plants can use nitrogen dioxide as an alternative fertilizer. In this study, we addressed whether plants can grow with nitrogen dioxide as a sole nitrogen source.
Wild type and a nitrate reductase-deficient mutant line (E-23) of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia were used. They were grown for 3-6 weeks under natural light at 22oC in the presence of 4 ppm nitrogen dioxide. There were irrigated either with a medium containing 9.46 mM ammonium succinate or with a medium without nitrogen. It was found that E-23 plants grown with the culture medium lacking nitrogen showed a very similar growth (3-4 times in height) to that of those grown with ammonium succinate medium. This indicates that nitrogen dioxide can serve as an alternative nitrogen fertilizer in this plant species.
