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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The metabolic reserves, carbohydrate balance and nutritional status of jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), in relation to its annual cycle and fruit load

Silit Lazare https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9813-8523 A # * , Aviad Perry A B # , Noemi Tel-Zur C , Or Sperling A , Uri Yermiyahu A , Hagai Yasuor A and Arnon Dag A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Gilat Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat, Israel.

B The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer, Israel.

C French Associates Institutes for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer, Israel.

* Correspondence to: silitl@volcani.agri.gov.il
# These authors contributed equally to this paper

Handling Editor: Thomas Roberts

Functional Plant Biology 48(12) 1277-1287 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP21123
Submitted: 20 April 2021  Accepted: 16 September 2021   Published: 4 October 2021

© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis (Link) Schneider) holds high industrial value and an extended cultivation trend. Despite its increased importance, there is a lack of fundamental information about its metabolic reserves and development. Our objective was to characterise metabolite allocation and fluctuations in the carbohydrate and nutrient balance of jojoba plants, as affected by fruit load and the plant’s annual cycle. Metabolite profiles were performed for each organ. Soluble carbohydrates (SC) and starch concentrations were surveyed in underground and aboveground organs of high-yield and fruit-removed plants. Simultaneously, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus were determined in the leaves to evaluate the plant’s nutritional status. We found that sucrose and pinitol were the most abundant sugars in all jojoba organs. Each sugar had a ‘preferred’ organ: glucose was accumulated mainly in the leaves, sucrose and pinitol in woody branches, and fructose in the trunk wood. We found that fruit load significantly influenced the carbohydrate levels in green branches, trunk wood and thin roots. The phenological stage strongly affected the SC–starch balance. Among the examined minerals, only the leaf potassium level was significantly influenced by fruit load. We conclude that jojoba’s nutrient and carbohydrate balance is affected by fruit load and the phenological stage, and describe the organ-specific metabolic reserves.

Keywords: carbohydrates, growth cycle, metabolome, pinitol, productivity, reservoir, Simmondsia chinensis, sink-source relationships.


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