21251019

not annotated - annotated - LINNAEUS only

Comparative ionomics and metabolomics in extremophile and glycophytic Lotus species under salt stress challenge the metabolic pre-adaptation hypothesis.

The legume genus Lotus includes glycophytic forage crops and other species adapted to extreme environments, such as saline soils. Understanding salt tolerance mechanisms will contribute to the discovery of new traits which may enhance the breeding efforts towards improved performance of legumes in marginal agricultural environments. Here, we used a combination of ionomic and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolite profilings of complete shoots (pooling leaves, petioles and stems) to compare the extremophile Lotus creticus, adapted to highly saline coastal regions, and two cultivated glycophytic grassland forage species, Lotus corniculatus and Lotus tenuis. L. creticus exhibited better survival after exposure to long-term lethal salinity and was more efficient at excluding Cl- from the shoots than the glycophytes. In contrast, Na+ levels were higher in the extremophile under both control and salt stress, a trait often observed in halophytes. Ionomics demonstrated a differential rearrangement of shoot nutrient levels in the extremophile upon salt exposure. Metabolite profiling showed that responses to NaCl in L. creticus shoots were globally similar to those of the glycophytes, providing little evidence for metabolic pre-adaptation to salinity. This study is the first comparing salt acclimation responses between extremophile and non-extremophile legumes, and challenges the generalization of the metabolic salt pre-adaptation hypothesis.



Ann file

T1	Species 690 704	Lotus creticus

N1 Reference T1 Taxonomy:181267

T2 Species 805 823 Lotus corniculatus

N2 Reference T2 Taxonomy:47247

T3 Species 828 840 Lotus tenuis

N3 Reference T3 Taxonomy:347996

T4 Species 842 853 L. creticus

N4 Reference T4 Taxonomy:181267

T5 Species 1302 1313 L. creticus

N5 Reference T5 Taxonomy:181267