Folate disorder in the atdfb mutant triggers a compensatory nitrogen starvation response by altering nitrate...

Folates are essential cofactors that bridge carbon and nitrogen metabolism. However, the role of specific folate derivatives in regulating nitrogen homeostasis remains poorly understood. Here, we characterize the link between folate metabolism and nitrogen sensing using the Arabidopsis thaliana atdfb mutant. We show that atdfb exhibits a disrupted folate profile, characterized by a deficiency in main metabolic folates and an accumulation of formylfolates, which is exacerbated under low nitrogen (0.3 N). This metabolic defect triggers a systemic transcriptomic signature of nitrogen starvation, including strong upregulation of high-affinity nitrate transporters (e.g., NRT2.1) and assimilation genes (e.g., NR, NiR, GS/GOGAT), even under nitrogen-sufficient (9.4 N) conditions. Physiologically, this results in a light-dependent hyperactive nitrate influx in mutant roots under low N. Exogenous application of 5-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (5-F-THF) rescued this aberrant nitrate flux phenotype. Furthermore, we demonstrate that 5-F-THF directly modulates the activities of key nitrogen assimilatory enzymes in vitro, stimulating nitrite reductase (NiR) while inhibiting glutamine synthetase (GS). Collectively, our results establish that functional folate metabolism, maintained by atdfb, is critical for nitrogen homeostasis. We propose that 5-F-THF acts as a key metabolic signal that orchestrates the nitrogen starvation response by integrating with the nitrate transport and assimilation network.