Deficiency of micronutrients in soil particularly, that of Fe is a major nutritional and production constraint worldwide. We hypothesize a role of sulphur nutrition in altering the Fe deficiency tolerance response of crop plants. Present investigation was conducted to elucidate the role of S in regulating uptake and in-plant partitioning of Fe in bread and durum wheat through a field and a nutrient solution culture experiment. S application to wheat, on low Fe field soil (<4ppm), increased the shoot Fe concentration and grain yield significantly. Results from the hydroponic studies, which supported the field level observations, showed that an increase in Fe uptake by Fe deficient plants under S sufficiency is mediated via a higher release of PS and that S deficiency inhibits the root synthesis and release of PS. Transcript expression analysis revealed an up regulation of YS1 transporter and a down regulation of SULTR1; 1 transporter at increasing S nutrition. Interestingly, SULTR1; 1 expression was up regulated only in the presence of Fe. The study concludes that S nutrition is critical for Fe deficiency tolerance response of crops and indicates a reverse regulation of S nutrition by Fe under low S.

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