Differential Physio-Biochemical and Metabolic Responses of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under Multiple Abiotic Stress Conditions

Abstract

The frequency and severity of extreme climatic conditions such as drought, salinity, cold, and heat are increasing due to climate change. Moreover, in the field, plants are affected by multiple abiotic stresses simultaneously or sequentially. Thus, it is imperative to compare the effects of stress combinations on crop plants relative to individual stresses. This study investigated the differential regulation of physio-biochemical and metabolomics parameters in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under individual (salt, drought, cold, and heat) and combined stress treatments using multivariate correlation analysis. The results showed that combined heat, salt, and drought stress compounds the stress effect of individual stresses. Combined stresses that included heat had the highest electrolyte leakage and lowest relative water content. Lipid peroxidation and chlorophyll contents did not significantly change under combined stresses. Biochemical parameters, such as free amino acids, polyphenol, starch, and sugars, significantly changed under combined stresses compared to individual stresses. Free amino acids increased under combined stresses that included heat; starch, sugars, and polyphenols increased under combined stresses that included drought; proline concentration increased under combined stresses that included salt. Metabolomics data that were obtained under different individual and combined stresses can be used to identify molecular phenotypes that are involved in the acclimation response of plants under changing abiotic stress conditions. Peanut metabolomics identified 160 metabolites, including amino acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, organic acids, fatty acids, sugar acids, and other organic compounds. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that abiotic stresses significantly affected amino acid, amino sugar, and sugar metabolism. The stress treatments affected the metabolites that were associated with the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) and urea cycles and associated amino acid biosynthesis pathway intermediates. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and heatmap analysis identified potential marker metabolites (pinitol, malic acid, and xylopyranose) that were associated with abiotic stress combinations, which could be used in breeding efforts to develop peanut cultivars that are resilient to climate change. The study will also facilitate researchers to explore different stress indicators to identify resistant cultivars for future crop improvement programs.

Plant Metabolomics: An Overview of the Role of Primary and Secondary Metabolites against Different Environmental Stress Factors

“…Different findings show the study of metabolomics under several environmental abiotic stresses, such as temperature [ 58 ], salinity and drought [ 59 ], and soil flooding [ 60 ]. In the same way, various metals and metalloids including, sulfur [ 61 ], phosphorus [ 62 ], oxidative stress [ 63 ], TM [ 64 ], and the combination of other several stress factors [ 65 ] in plants ( Table 1 ). Various environmental factors that could negatively disturb the homeostasis and growth of plants are shown below ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…Additionally, ascorbic acids, glutamine, alpha-tocopherol, anthocyanins, and carotene shield plant tissues by foraging the intermediates of bustling oxygen produced during oxidative stress [ 70 ]. Similarly, several other smaller compounds guard plants against oxidation damage related to various constrictions [ 65 ].…”

Comparative Multi-Omics Analysis Reveals Lignin Accumulation Affects Peanut Pod Size

“…Metabolites are tightly related to plant phenotypes [ 25 ], as compounds that accumulate in plant organs and affect plant phenotypes [ 26 ]. In peanut, there have been several comprehensive studies of the metabolomics responses to stresses such as salt [ 27 ], drought [ 28 ] and cold stress [ 29 ]. However, metabolomics studies on peanut pod development have been scarcely reported so far.…”

Genome-Wide Characterization of Ascorbate Peroxidase Gene Family in Peanut (Arachis hypogea L.) Revealed Their Crucial Role in Growth and Multiple Stress Tolerance

“…Cultivated peanut is widely known as an essential oilseed, protein-enrich food crop worldwide and retains important breeding traits during domestication (Zhuang et al, 2019;Bohra et al, 2022). Even so, peanut production is still substantially influenced by numerous biotic and abiotic factors (Agarwal et al, 2018;Gangurde et al, 2020Gangurde et al, , 2021Kumar et al, 2020;Shasidhar et al, 2020;Sinha et al, 2020;Jadhav et al, 2021;Pandey et al, 2021;Soni et al, 2021;Aravind et al, 2022;Bomireddy et al, 2022;Liu et al, 2022;Patel et al, 2022). When plants are exposed to diverse abiotic and biotic factors, APX enzyme as a primary marker can quickly eliminate unnecessary H 2 O 2 (i.e., ROS scavenging) from plant cells by adjusting several physiological and biochemical activities to safeguard cells from the noxiousness of overproduction of ROS (Das and Roychoudhury, 2014;Mittler, 2017;Hasanuzzaman et al, 2020Hasanuzzaman et al, , 2021.…”

“…Cultivated peanut/groundnut (A. hypogaea L.), an allotetraploid crop, is one of the most valuable and economic oilseed food crops globally (Agarwal et al, 2018;Bertioli et al, 2019;Chen X. et al, 2019;Zhuang et al, 2019). This crop is being widely cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions globally; however, several abiotic and biotic factors significantly affect its growth and production, including many important agronomic traits (Agarwal et al, 2018;Gangurde et al, 2020Gangurde et al, , 2021Kumar et al, 2020;Pandey et al, 2020;Shasidhar et al, 2020;Sinha et al, 2020;Jadhav et al, 2021;Soni et al, 2021;Aravind et al, 2022;Bomireddy et al, 2022;Liu et al, 2022;Patel et al, 2022). Therefore, it is vital to identify new potential genes associated with multiple stress tolerance and trait improvement in peanut for better protein-rich food supply, particularly in Asian and African countries.…”