Folates play an important role in plant metabolism. Here we report a T-DNA insertion mutant (atdfb-3) of the plastidial folylpolyglutamate synthetase gene (AtDFB) was defective in folate metabolism and nitrogen metabolism under nitrate-limited conditions in darkness. Exogenous applied 5-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (5-F-THF) completely restored nitrogen content, soluble protein, total amino acids, individual amino acids including Glu, Gln, Asp, Asn, Pro, Arg and Met, nitrate, and endogenous 5-F-THF in atdfb-3 to the wild-type level. At the same time the application of 5-F-THF partially restored the content of Ser and nitrite in the mutant. Taken together, these results indicated that intact folate metabolism was necessary for nitrogen metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana under nitrate-limited condition in darkness, providing novel insights into function of folate. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.