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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Metabolic programming of Rhododendron chrysanthum leaves following exposure to UVB irradiation

Xiaofu Zhou A , Jie Lyu B , Li Sun C , Jiawei Dong A and Hongwei Xu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1721-7527 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Faculty of Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Spectral Regions Science and Green Production, Jilin Normal University, Siping 136000, China.

B Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Baotou Teachers’ College, Baotou 014030, China.

C Faculty of Siping Central People’s Hospital, Siping 136000, China.

* Correspondence to: xuhongwei@jlnu.edu.cn

Handling Editor: Suleyman Allakhverdiev

Functional Plant Biology 48(11) 1175-1185 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP20386
Submitted: 9 June 2020  Accepted: 7 August 2021   Published: 4 October 2021

© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Excessive UVB reaching the earth is a cause for concern. To decipher the mechanism concerning UVB resistance of plants, we studied the effects of UVB radiation on photosynthesis and metabolic profiling of Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall. by applying 2.3 W m−2 of UVB radiation for 2 days. Results showed that maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) and effective quantum yield of PSII (φPSII) decreased by 7.95% and 8.36%, respectively, following UVB exposure. Twenty five known metabolites were identified as most important by two different methods, including univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. Treatment of R. chrysanthum with UVB increased the abundance of flavonoids, organic acids, and amino acids by 62%, 22%, and 5%, respectively. UVB irradiation also induced about 1.18-fold increase in 11 top-ranked metabolites identified: five organic acids (d-2,3-dihydroxypropanoic acid, maleic acid, glyceric acid, fumaric acid and suberic acid), four amino acids (l-norleucine, 3-oxoalanine, l-serine and glycine), and two fatty acids (pelargonic acid and myristoleic acid). In addition, UVB irradiation increased the intermediate products of arginine biosynthesis and the TCA cycle. Taken together, the accumulation of flavonoids, organic acids, amino acids and fatty acids, accompanied by enhancement of TCA cycle and arginine biosynthesis, may protect R. chrysanthum plants against UVB deleterious effects.

Keywords: amino acids, arginine biosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, fatty acids, flavonoids, metabolic profile, organic acids, photosynthesis, Rhododendron chrysanthum, TCA cycle, UVB irradiation.


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