Metabolomic of oat roots reveal prevalent roles for brassinosteroids, behenic acid and fatty acids in drought tolerance

Trabajo presentado en la XXII Reunión de la Sociedad Española de Fisiología Vegetal (FV2017) y el XV Spanish Portuguese Congress of Plant Physiology, celebrado en Barcelona del 26 al 29 de junio de 2017.Drought is one of the major environmental factors determining plant yield. Despite drought sensing start at root system, our current understanding of the effects of drought on economically important crops is largely based on studies on above-ground traits. Given the importance of biochemical changes in the responses of plants to drought, metabolomic approaches would appear to be particularly appropriate in elucidating tolerance mechanisms. Thus, we have performed a metabolomic study to reveal metabolic changes occurring in the roots during the development of progressive drought. Samples from roots were taken from two well characterized oat genotypes for drought resistance. Metabolite profiles were obtained from different genotypes, time points and tissues using Direct Injection Electrospray Ionisation-Mass Spectrometry using a LTQ linear ion trap and a high resolution Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid Mass Spectrometer. Key metabolite differences were elucidated using multivariate statistical approaches, particularly discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). All metabolites were validated and the absolute concentration in samples calculated for comparison. Taken together the discriminatory metabolites suggested that brassinosteroids, behenic acid, and fatty acid biochemical pathways have key role within roots for inducing drought resistance. Independent targeted analyses are currently carrying out in order to substantiate the role of the differentially expressed pathways.N