Expression of Sorghum bicolor ammonium transporters upon colonization with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important plant symbionts, trading mineral nutrients beyond the reach of roots, in particular ammonium, in exchange to their host’s photosynthetic products. Sorghum bicolor is one of the world's leading cereal crops, providing food, fibre and fuel across a range of environments and production systems. It has a particular ability to be productive even under strongly adverse conditions, tolerating much more severe drought than most other grain crops. As its genome has recently been sequenced, we have characterized all eight members of the ammonium transporter (AMT) family and studied their expression in different tissues of field-grown plants. While most…