Adjusting ammonium uptake via phosphorylation.

In plants, AMT/MEP/Rh superfamily mediates high affinity ammonium uptake. AMT/MEP transporters form a trimeric complex, which requires a productive interaction between subunits in order to be functional. The AMT/MEP C-terminal domain is highly conserved in more than 700 AMT homologs from cyanobacteria to higher plants with no cases found to be lacking this domain. AMT1;1 exists in active and inactive states, probably controlled by the spatial positioning of the C-terminus. Ammonium triggers the phosphorylation of a conserved threonine residue (T460) in the C-terminus of AMT1;1 in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. The T460 phosphorylation level correlates with a decrease of root ammonium uptake. We propose that ammonium-induced phosphorylation modulates ammonium uptake as a general mechanism to protect against ammonium toxicity.