RNAseq analyses reveal insights into the function of respiratory nitrate reductase of the diazotroph   Paloma Bonato 1 ; Marcelo B. Batista 1 ; Doumit CamiliosNeto 3 ; Vânia C. S. Pankievicz 1 ; Michelle Z. TadraSfeir 1 ; Rose Adele Monteiro 1 ; Fabio O. Pedrosa 1 ; Emanuel M. Souza 1 , Leda S. Chubatsu 1 ; Roseli Wassem 2 ; Liu Un Rigo 1 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and 2 Department of Genetics, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. 3 Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brazil. Corresponding author: Roseli Wassem Department of Genetics, Universidade Federal do Paraná Curitiba, Paraná, CP 19071, 81531980, Brazil Phone: +554133611734 Fax: +554133611793 Email: wassem@ufpr.br Key words:  , respiratory nitrate reductase, nitrate metabolism Running title: Insights into nitrate reductase of   OriginalitySignificance Statement: This work shows that despite being highly expressed in the presence of nitrate genes coding for a respiratory nitrate reductase of   do not support nitrate respiration. Our data support the involvement of this enzyme in redox power dissipation and confirm that it is the main source of NO production, an important signal molecule in plants. We show for the first time that the NAR activity in   is important for plantbacterial interaction. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as an ‘Accepted Article’, doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13422 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.