Phosphorus Transport in Arabidopsis and Wheat: Emerging Strategies to Improve P Pool in Seeds

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plants to complete their life cycle. P taken up from the soil by the roots is transported to the rest of the plant and ultimately stored in seeds. This stored P is used during germination to sustain the nutritional demands of the growing seedling in the absence of a developed root system. Nevertheless, P deficiency, an increasing global issue, greatly decreases the vigour of afflicted seeds. To combat P deficiency, current crop production methods rely on heavy P fertilizer application, an unsustainable practice in light of a speculated decrease in worldwide P stocks. Therefore, the overall goal in optimizing P usage for agricultural purposes is both to decrease our dependency on P fertilizers and enhance the P-use efficiency in plants. Achieving this goal requires a robust understanding of how plants regulate inorganic phosphate (Pi) transport, during vegetative growth as well as the reproductive stages of development. In this short review, we present the current knowledge on Pi transport in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and apply the information towards the economically important cereal crop wheat. We highlight the importance of developing our knowledge on the regulation of these plants’ P transport systems and P accumulation in seeds due to its involvement in maintaining their vigour and nutritional quality. We additionally discuss further discoveries in the subjects this review discusses substantiate this importance in their practical applications for practical food security and geopolitical applications.