Primary Metabolite Profile Changes in Coffea spp. Promoted by Single and Combined Exposure to Drought and Elevated CO2 Concentration

Abstract

Climate change scenarios pose major threats to many crops worldwide, including coffee. We explored the primary metabolite responses in two Coffea genotypes, C. canephora cv. Conilon Clone 153 and C. arabica cv. Icatu, grown at normal (aCO2) or elevated (eCO2) CO2 concentrations of 380 or 700 ppm, respectively, under well-watered (WW), moderate (MWD), or severe (SWD) water deficit conditions, in order to assess coffee responses to drought and how eCO2 can influence such responses. Primary metabolites were analyzed with a gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry metabolomics platform (GC-TOF-MS). A total of 48 primary metabolites were identified in both genotypes (23 amino acids and derivatives, 10 organic acids, 11 sugars, and 4 other metabolites), with differences recorded in both genotypes. Increased metabolite levels were observed in CL153 plants under single and combined conditions of aCO2 and drought (MWD and SWD), as opposed to the observed decreased levels under eCO2 in both drought conditions. In contrast, Icatu showed minor differences under MWD, and increased levels (especially amino acids) only under SWD at both CO2 concentration conditions, although with a tendency towards greater increases under eCO2. Altogether, CL153 demonstrated large impact under MWD, and seemed not to benefit from eCO2 in either MWD and SWD, in contrast with Icatu.

Understanding the Impact of Drought in Coffea Genotypes: Transcriptomic Analysis Supports a Common High Resilience to Moderate Water Deficit but a Genotype Dependent Sensitivity to Severe Water Deficit

“…Such enrichment of detox pathways was also accompanied by metabolic and proteomic changes in Icatu, which included the reinforcement of thylakoid electron transport rates and some electron carriers, and the triggering of protective cyclic electron transport involving both photosystems. These processes would help maintain the photochemical use of energy while controlling the presence of reactive molecules of chlorophyll and oxygen [24,25,107]. In this context, the existence of strong post-transcriptional regulations is very likely, probably involving alternative splicing, noncoding RNAs (including siRNA, miRNA, lncRNA), RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) as well as protein modifications [108].…”

Physiological and Molecular Responses of Woody Plants Exposed to Future Atmospheric CO2 Levels under Abiotic Stresses

“…Recently, studies have demonstrated that the buffering effect of e[CO 2 ] in Coffea plants exposed to different levels of water deficit is genotype-dependent [ 114 , 115 ]. Elevated CO 2 attenuated the negative drought impacts in C. canephora cv.…”

“…While in Conilon plants, e[CO 2 ] improved the photochemical efficiency by increasing the PSII efficiency and decreasing the thermal energy dissipation, this beneficial effect in Icatu plants was slight and more related to keeping the abundance of photosynthetic proteins and the cyclic electron flow at PSI under moderate or severe drought conditions [ 114 ]. The contrasting effect of e[CO 2 ] in these Coffea genotypes exposed to different water deficit conditions was also noticed at the metabolic level [ 115 ]. While the abundance of the most primary metabolites (mainly amino acids) decreased in Conilon, they increased in Icatu exposed to the combination of e[CO 2 ] and drought [ 115 ].…”

“…The contrasting effect of e[CO 2 ] in these Coffea genotypes exposed to different water deficit conditions was also noticed at the metabolic level [ 115 ]. While the abundance of the most primary metabolites (mainly amino acids) decreased in Conilon, they increased in Icatu exposed to the combination of e[CO 2 ] and drought [ 115 ]. The metabolite profile was more affected by severe water deficit regardless of CO 2 in both genotypes, except for Icatu plants under moderate water deficit and e[CO 2 ], which were close to well-watered plants, suggesting a beneficial effect of CO 2 enrichment in moderate drought conditions.…”

Shaded-Coffee: A Nature-Based Strategy for Coffee Production Under Climate Change? A Review

“…Additionally, eCO 2 was recently reported to have also marked implications on how coffee plants respond to soil water deficit, greatly attenuating drought impacts (even under severe water deficit conditions) regarding, among others, the photosynthetic performance, hydraulic conductance, and growth, as well as gene expression and metabolite profile (Avila et al, 2020a,b;Fernandes et al, 2021;Rodrigues et al, 2021;Semedo et al, 2021). When eCO 2 is combined with a single drought episode, high genotypic heterogeneity has been observed in the primary metabolite responses of both C. arabica and C. canephora cultivars (Rodrigues et al, 2021). These findings stress the phenotypic plasticity of the Coffea genome and how it can be harnessed through targeted climate adaptation breeding programs.…”