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Special Issue "Metabolomics and Plant Defence"

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A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2024 | Viewed by 7231

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Shitou Xia

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Guest Editor

Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Phytohormones and Growth Development, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
Interests: plant-microbe interaction; phytohormone; plant immunity; plant physiology; microbe genetics and gene function analysis; oil rape resistance and gene engineering

Dr. Junxing Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Life Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Interests: plant immunity; Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The environment is not always suitable for plant growth and development. To combat the adversities relating to biotic and abiotic stresses, plants need to change their metabolic pathways to adapt to the environment. During this process, some special metabolites such as defence phytohormones or flavonoids might be produced or enhanced, which will be beneficial to plant defence and help them survive under environmental stresses.

For this Special Issue, we aim to collect research that is relevant to all aspects of plant metabolomics under biotic and abiotic stresses, the positive and negative effects of some special metabolites on defence and plant growth and development, phytohormone-regulated metabolic homeostasis, and methodologies advances with regard to primary and secondary metabolisms related to plant defence. We welcome original research articles as well as in-depth reviews covering these topics.

Prof. Dr. Shitou Xia
Dr. Junxing Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

metabolomics
plant defense
biotic and abiotic stresses
phytohormone
metabolites and metabolic homeostasis
metabolomic profiling methodology

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3407 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Metabolic Rewiring in Tea Plants in Response to Gray Blight Disease Unveiled by Multi-Omics Analysis

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Metabolites 2023, 13(11), 1122; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13111122 - 01 Nov 2023

Viewed by 704

Abstract

Gray blight disease, which is caused by Pestalotiopsis-like species, poses significant challenges to global tea production. However, the comprehensive metabolic responses of tea plants during gray blight infection remain understudied. Here, we employed a multi-omics strategy to characterize the temporal transcriptomic and metabolomic changes in tea plants during infection by Pseudopestalotiopsis theae, the causal agent of gray blight. Untargeted metabolomic profiling with ultra-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOFMS) revealed extensive metabolic rewiring over the course of infection, particularly within 24 h post-inoculation. A total of 64 differentially accumulated metabolites were identified, including elevated levels of antimicrobial compounds such as caffeine and (−)-epigallocatechin 3-gallate, as well as oxidative catechin polymers like theaflavins, theasinensins and theacitrins. Conversely, the synthesis of (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, oligomeric proanthocyanidins and flavonol glycosides decreased. Integrated omics analyses uncovered up-regulation of phenylpropanoid, flavonoid, lignin biosynthesis and down-regulation of photosynthesis in response to the pathogen stress. This study provides novel insights into the defense strategies of tea plants against gray blight disease, offering potential targets for disease control and crop improvement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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22 pages, 4574 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Metabolomic Reconfiguration in Primed Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Plants in Response to Pyrenophora teres f. teres Infection

Claude Y. Hamany Djande

and

Metabolites 2023, 13(9), 997; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13090997 - 07 Sep 2023

Viewed by 728

Abstract

Necrotrophic fungi affect a wide range of plants and cause significant crop losses. For the activation of multi-layered innate immune defences, plants can be primed or pre-conditioned to rapidly and more efficiently counteract this pathogen. Untargeted and targeted metabolomics analyses were applied to elucidate the biochemical processes involved in the response of 3,5-dichloroanthranilic acid (3,5-DCAA) primed barley plants to Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt). A susceptible barley cultivar (‘Hessekwa’) at the third leaf growth stage was treated with 3,5-DCAA 24 h prior to infection using a Ptt conidia suspension. The infection was monitored over 2, 4, and 6 days post-inoculation. For untargeted studies, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS) was used to analyse methanolic plant extracts. Acquired data were processed to generate the data matrices utilised in chemometric modelling and multi-dimensional data mining. For targeted studies, selected metabolites from the amino acids, phenolic acids, and alkaloids classes were quantified using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry. 3,5-DCAA was effective as a priming agent in delaying the onset and intensity of symptoms but could not prevent the progression of the disease. Unsupervised learning methods revealed clear differences between the sample extracts from the control plants and the infected plants. Both orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and ‘shared and unique structures’ (SUS) plots allowed for the extraction of potential markers of the primed and naïve plant responses to Ptt. These include classes of organic acids, fatty acids, amino acids, phenolic acids, and derivatives and flavonoids. Among these, 5-oxo-proline and citric acid were notable as priming response-related metabolites. Metabolites from the tricarboxylic acid pathway were only discriminant in the primed plant infected with Ptt. Furthermore, the quantification of targeted metabolites revealed that hydroxycinnamic acids were significantly more prominent in the primed infected plants, especially at 2 d.p.i. Our research advances efforts to better understand regulated and reprogrammed metabolic responses that constitute defence priming in barley against Ptt. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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18 pages, 3791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coordinated Regulation of Central Carbon Metabolism in Pyroligneous Acid-Treated Tomato Plants under Aluminum Stress

Raphael Ofoe

Raymond H. Thomas

and

Lord Abbey

Metabolites 2023, 13(6), 770; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13060770 - 20 Jun 2023

Viewed by 905

Abstract

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is a major threat to global crop production in acidic soils, which can be mitigated by natural substances such as pyroligneous acid (PA). However, the effect of PA in regulating plant central carbon metabolism (CCM) under Al stress is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of varying PA concentrations (0, 0.25 and 1% PA/ddH₂O (v/v)) on intermediate metabolites involved in CCM in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L., ‘Scotia’) seedlings under varying Al concentrations (0, 1 and 4 mM AlCl₃). A total of 48 differentially expressed metabolites of CCM were identified in the leaves of both control and PA-treated plants under Al stress. Calvin–Benson cycle (CBC) and pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) metabolites were considerably reduced under 4 mM Al stress, irrespective of the PA treatment. Conversely, the PA treatment markedly increased glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) metabolites compared to the control. Although glycolysis metabolites in the 0.25% PA-treated plants under Al stress were comparable to the control, the 1% PA-treated plants exhibited the highest accumulation of glycolysis metabolites. Furthermore, all PA treatments increased TCA metabolites under Al stress. Electron transport chain (ETC) metabolites were higher in PA-treated plants alone and under 1 mM, Al but were reduced under a higher Al treatment of 4 mM. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that CBC metabolites had a significantly strong positive (r = 0.99; p < 0.001) association with PPP metabolites. Additionally, glycolysis metabolites showed a significantly moderate positive association (r = 0.76; p < 0.05) with TCA metabolites, while ETC metabolites exhibited no association with any of the determined pathways. The coordinated association between CCM pathway metabolites suggests that PA can stimulate changes in plant metabolism to modulate energy production and biosynthesis of organic acids under Al stress conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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24 pages, 4590 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Metabolic Reprogramming of Barley in Response to Foliar Application of Dichlorinated Functional Analogues of Salicylic Acid as Priming Agents and Inducers of Plant Defence

Claude Y. Hamany Djande

and

Metabolites 2023, 13(5), 666; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13050666 - 17 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 793

Abstract

Designing innovative biological crop protection strategies to stimulate natural plant immunity is motivated by the growing need for eco-friendly alternatives to conventional biocidal agrochemicals. Salicylic acid (SA) and analogues are known chemical inducers of priming plant immunity against environmental stresses. The aim of the study was to study the metabolic reprogramming in barley plants following an application of three proposed dichlorinated inducers of acquired resistance. 3,5-Dichloroanthranilic acid, 2,6-dichloropyridine-4-carboxylic acid, and 3,5-dichlorosalicylic acid were applied to barley at the third leaf stage of development and harvested at 12, 24, and 36 h post-treatment. Metabolites were extracted using methanol for untargeted metabolomics analyses. Samples were analysed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-definition mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HDMS). Chemometric methods and bioinformatics tools were used to mine and interpret the generated data. Alterations in the levels of both primary and secondary metabolites were observed. The accumulation of barley-specific metabolites, hordatines, and precursors was observed from 24 h post-treatment. The phenylpropanoid pathway, a marker of induced resistance, was identified among the key mechanisms activated by the treatment with the three inducers. No salicylic acid or SA derivatives were annotated as signatory biomarkers; instead, jasmonic acid precursors and derivatives were found as discriminatory metabolites across treatments. The study highlights differences and similarities in the metabolomes of barley after treatment with the three inducers and points to the triggering chemical changes associated with defence and resistance. This report is the first of its kind, and the knowledge acquired provides deeper insight into the role of dichlorinated small molecules as inducers of plant immunity and can be used in metabolomics-guided plant improvement programmes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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21 pages, 2324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Untargeted Metabolomics of Alternaria solani-Challenged Wild Tomato Species Solanum cheesmaniae Revealed Key Metabolite Biomarkers and Insight into Altered Metabolic Pathways

Dhananjaya Pratap Singh

Krishna Kumar Chaturvedi

Prabhakar Mohan Singh

Tusar Kanti Behera

and

Mohamed A. Farag

Metabolites 2023, 13(5), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13050585 - 24 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1325

Abstract

Untargeted metabolomics of moderately resistant wild tomato species Solanum cheesmaniae revealed an altered metabolite profile in plant leaves in response to Alternaria solani pathogen. Leaf metabolites were significantly differentiated in non-stressed versus stressed plants. The samples were discriminated not only by the presence/absence of specific metabolites as distinguished markers of infection, but also on the basis of their relative abundance as important concluding factors. Annotation of metabolite features using the Arabidopsis thaliana (KEGG) database revealed 3371 compounds with KEGG identifiers belonging to biosynthetic pathways including secondary metabolites, cofactors, steroids, brassinosteroids, terpernoids, and fatty acids. Annotation using the Solanum lycopersicum database in PLANTCYC PMN revealed significantly upregulated (541) and downregulated (485) features distributed in metabolite classes that appeared to play a crucial role in defense, infection prevention, signaling, plant growth, and plant homeostasis to survive under stress conditions. The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), comprising a significant fold change (≥2.0) with VIP score (≥1.0), showed 34 upregulated biomarker metabolites including 5-phosphoribosylamine, kaur-16-en-18-oic acid, pantothenate, and O-acetyl-L-homoserine, along with 41 downregulated biomarkers. Downregulated metabolite biomarkers were mapped with pathways specifically known for plant defense, suggesting their prominent role in pathogen resistance. These results hold promise for identifying key biomarker metabolites that contribute to disease resistive metabolic traits/biosynthetic routes. This approach can assist in mQTL development for the stress breeding program in tomato against pathogen interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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21 pages, 3646 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Central Carbon Metabolites of Mexican Mint (Plectranthus amboinicus) Plants Are Impacted under Different Watering Regimes

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Metabolites 2023, 13(4), 539; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13040539 - 10 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1349

Abstract

Plants are sessile, and their ability to reprogram their metabolism to adapt to fluctuations in soil water level is crucial but not clearly understood. A study was performed to determine alterations in intermediate metabolites involved in central carbon metabolism (CCM) following exposure of Mexican mint (Plectranthus amboinicus) to varying watering regimes. The water treatments were regular watering (RW), drought (DR), flooding (FL), and resumption of regular watering after flooding (DHFL) or after drought (RH). Leaf cluster formation and leaf greening were swift following the resumption of regular watering. A total of 68 key metabolites from the CCM routes were found to be significantly (p < 0.01) impacted by water stress. Calvin cycle metabolites in FL plants, glycolytic metabolites in DR plants, total tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolites in DR and DHFL plants, and nucleotide biosynthetic molecules in FL and RH plants were significantly (p < 0.05) increased. Pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) metabolites were equally high in all the plants except DR plants. Total Calvin cycle metabolites had a significantly (p < 0.001) strong positive association with TCA cycle (r = 0.81) and PPP (r = 0.75) metabolites. Total PPP metabolites had a moderately positive association with total TCA cycle metabolites (r = 0.68; p < 0.01) and a negative correlation with total glycolytic metabolites (r = −0.70; p < 0.005). In conclusion, the metabolic alterations of Mexican mint plants under different watering regimes were revealed. Future studies will use transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to identify genes and proteins that regulate the CCM route. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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15 pages, 4009 KiB

Open AccessArticle

β-Cyclocitral-Mediated Metabolic Changes Optimize Growth and Defense Responses in Solanum lycopersicum L.

Shreyas Deshpande

and

Sirsha Mitra

Metabolites 2023, 13(3), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo13030329 - 23 Feb 2023

Viewed by 950

Abstract

β-cyclocitral (βCC) is one of the significant oxidative products of β-carotene. It primes plants for multiple stress acclimation without compromising plant growth. Metabolic reorganization is necessary to maintain a balance between growth and defense. However, the βCC-mediated changes in a plant’s metabolic network are unknown. Here, we demonstrate how βCC-induced metabolic changes enable Solanum lycopersicum L. (tomato) plants to promote defense and maintain growth under stress. An analysis of early (0–240 min) and late (72 h) changes in the tomato metabolome after βCC-treatment using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry identified 57 compounds. A principal coordinate analysis suggested that βCC treatment significantly changes the metabolite profile. A variable importance in projection (VIP) analysis revealed 16 and 19 discriminant metabolites from early and late samples, respectively (VIP ≥ 1.0). Upregulated metabolites were mainly amino acids and phytophenols. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that βCC treatment influenced amino acid metabolism at early and later times; however, phenylpropanoid and isoquinoline biosynthesis were influenced only at the later time. A 66.6% similarity in the upregulated metabolites of βCC- and simulated-herbivory-treated plants confirmed βCC’s role against herbivores. We conclude that βCC steers a temporal separation in amino acids and defense metabolite accumulation that optimizes resource allocation to growth and defense. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics and Plant Defence)

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