The present invention provides methods and compositions relating to altering NT activity, nitrogen utilization efficiency and/or uptake in plants. The invention relates to a method for the production of plants with maintained or increased yield under low nitrogen fertility. The invention provides isolated nitrate transporter variant (NT variant) nucleic acids and their encoded proteins. The invention further provides recombinant expression cassettes, host cells, and transgenic plants. Plants transformed with nucleotide sequences encoding the NT variant enzyme show improved properties, for example, increased yield.