Transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of Yukon Thellungiella plants grown in cabinets and their natural habitat show phenotypic plasticity

Abstract

BackgroundThellungiella salsuginea is an important model plant due to its natural tolerance to abiotic stresses including salt, cold, and water deficits. Microarray and metabolite profiling have shown that Thellungiella undergoes stress-responsive changes in transcript and organic solute abundance when grown under controlled environmental conditions. However, few reports assess the capacity of plants to display stress-responsive traits in natural habitats where concurrent stresses are the norm.ResultsTo determine whether stress-responsive changes observed in cabinet-grown plants are recapitulated in the field, we analyzed leaf transcript and metabolic profiles of Thellungiella growing in its native Yukon habitat during two years of contrasting meteorological conditions. We found 673 genes showing differential expression between field and unstressed, chamber-grown plants. There were comparatively few overlaps between genes expressed under field and cabinet treatment-specific conditions. Only 20 of 99 drought-responsive genes were expressed both in the field during a year of low precipitation and in plants subjected to drought treatments in cabinets. There was also a general pattern of lower abundance among metabolites found in field plants relative to control or stress-treated plants in growth cabinets. Nutrient availability may explain some of the observed differences. For example, proline accumulated to high levels in cold and salt-stressed cabinet-grown plants but proline content was, by comparison, negligible in plants at a saline Yukon field site. We show that proline accumulated in a stress-responsive manner in Thellungiella plants salinized in growth cabinets and in salt-stressed seedlings when nitrogen was provided at 1.0 mM. In seedlings grown on 0.1 mM nitrogen medium, the proline content was low while carbohydrates increased. The relatively higher content of sugar-like compounds in field plants and seedlings on low nitrogen media suggests that Thellungiella shows metabolic plasticity in response to environmental stress and that resource availability can influence the expression of stress tolerance traits under field conditions.ConclusionComparisons between Thellungiella plants responding to stress in cabinets and in their natural habitats showed differences but also overlap between transcript and metabolite profiles. The traits in common offer potential targets for improving crops that must respond appropriately to multiple, concurrent stresses.

Growth Platform-Dependent and -Independent Phenotypic and Metabolic Responses of Arabidopsis and Its Halophytic Relative, Eutrema salsugineum, to Salt Stress

“…In agreement with previous reports (Lugan et al, 2010;Guevara et al, 2012), our PCA showed that species was the predominant factor explaining differences in metabolic response to salt stress (Fig. 6).…”

“…GPGro, Glycerophosphoglycerol. dramatic differences in growth and development of E. salsugineum (Yukon ecotype) between plants grown in the soil in cabinets and plants grown in native field conditions (Guevara et al, 2012). Cabinet-grown plants produced many basal rosette leaves with a few cauline leaves developing on the main and axillary bolts, whereas in the field only a few or even no rosette leaves were produced.…”

“…Volkov et al, 2003;Inan et al, 2004;Kant et al, 2006;Guevara et al, 2012). These systems can lead to vastly different growth phenotypes.…”

Phenotyping the Genetic Diversity of Wild Agave Species that Coexist in the Same Spatial Region

“…Like in Arabidopsis taliana, Kazachkova et al (2013) studied different treatment and growth platform and determined that the samples were clearly clustered according to the species first, and also clear subclades were observed separated by growth platform. Also, similar results were reported in Eutrema salsugineum by Guevara et al (2012).…”

Isolation and Gene Expression Analysis of Flowering-related Genes in Lettuce (<i>Lactuca sativa</i> L.)

“…In contrast, natural environments comprise several factors that are unpredictable and fluctuate. With the growing interest in studying the genetics of adaptation in ecological field environments (Izawa, 2015), several studies have been conducted to demonstrate the advantages of using both natural and controlled environments (Champigny et al, 2013;Guevara et al, 2012;Plessis et al, 2015). In the present study, LsFT expression increased in 'LLG' and 'TG' cultivars grown in the field and was correlated with flowering ( Figs.…”