Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Analysis of AtHIRD11 Intrinsic Disorder and Binding Towards Metal Ions by Capillary Gel Electrophoresis and Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis
Published on: August 22, 2018
AtDUR3 encodes a new type of high-affinity urea/H+ symporter in Arabidopsis
Lai-Hua Liu1, Uwe Ludewig, Wolf B Frommer
1Institut für Pflanzenernährung, Universität Hohenheim, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
Urea is the major nitrogen form supplied as fertilizer in agricultural plant production but also an important nitrogen metabolite in plants. We report the cloning and functional characterization of AtDUR3, a high-affinity urea transporter in plants. AtDUR3 contains 14 putative transmembrane-spanning domains and represents an individual member in Arabidopsis that belongs to a superfamily of sodium-solute symporters. Heterologous expression in urea uptake-defective yeast as well as two-electrode voltage clamp and uptake studies using (14)C-labeled urea in AtDUR3-expressing oocytes demonstrated that AtDUR3 mediates urea transport. In both heterologous systems, urea transport was stimulated at low pH. In oocytes, inward currents indicated that urea is cotransported with protons. By contrast, a supply of Na(+) ions could not stimulate urea transport. Transport of (14)C-labeled urea by AtDUR3 in oocytes exhibited saturation kinetics with a K(m) of approximately 3 micro M. AtDUR3 was expressed in shoots and roots and upregulated during early germination and under nitrogen deficiency in roots. We propose a role of AtDUR3 in urea uptake by plant cells at low external urea concentrations.
Related Concept Videos
Urea Cycle
tRNA Activation
ABC Transporters: Exporter
Secondary Active Transport
Allosteric Proteins-ATCase
Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the condensation of L-aspartate and carbamoyl phosphate to N-carbamoyl-L-aspartate. This reaction is the first step in pyrimidine biosynthesis. UTP and CTP, the end products of the pyrimidine synthesis pathway,...
Protein Transport to the Inner Chloroplast Membrane

