Metabolomic analysis reveals key metabolites and metabolic pathways in Suaeda salsa under salt and drought stress
Jinbo Bao
A # , Zhiyou Liu B # , Zhijie Ding A C , Gulbar Yisilam A C , Qiuyan Wang A * and Xinmin Tian A C *
A Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection, College of Life Science, Guangxi Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guilin 541004, China.
B City Management and Service Centre of Tiemenguan, Xinjiang, China.
C Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, College of Life science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
Handling Editor: Rosa Rivero
Functional Plant Biology 50(9) 701-711 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23049
Submitted: 24 February 2023 Accepted: 26 June 2023 Published: 3 August 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
Suaeda salsa is an important salt- and drought-tolerant plant with important ecological restoration roles. However, little is known about its underlying molecular regulatory mechanisms. Therefore, understanding the response mechanisms of plants to salt and drought stress is of great importance. In this study, metabolomics analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of salt and drought stress on S. salsa. The experiment consisted of three treatments: (1) control (CK); (2) salt stress (Ps); and (3) drought stress (Pd). The results showed that compared with the control group, S. salsa showed significant differences in phenotypes under salt and drought stress conditions. First, a total of 207 and 292 differential metabolites were identified in the Ps/CK and Pd/CK groups, respectively. Second, some soluble sugars and amino acids, such as raffinose, maltopentoses, D-altro-beptulose, D-proline, valine-proline, proline, tryptophan and glycine-L-leucine, showed increased activity under salt and drought stress conditions, suggesting that these metabolites may be responsible for salt and drought resistance in S. salsa. Third, the flavonoid biosynthetic and phenylalanine metabolic pathways were significantly enriched under both salt and drought stress conditions, indicating that these two metabolic pathways play important roles in salt and drought stress resistance in S. salsa. The findings of this study provide new insights into the salt and drought tolerance mechanisms of S. salsa.
Keywords: abiotic, ecological restoration, enrichment, metabolic profiling, osmoregulation, pathways, stress response, tolerance.
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