Abstract
In this study, we investigated the mechanisms by which bermudagrass withstands the drought and submergence stresses through physiological, proteomic and metabolomic approaches. The results showed that significant physiological changes were observed after drought treatment, while only slight changes after submergence treatment, including compatible solute contents, ROS levels and antioxidant enzyme activities. Proteomics results showed that 81 proteins regulated by drought or submergence treatment were identified by MALDI-TOF-MS. Among them, 76 proteins were modulated by drought stress with 46 increased abundance and 30 decreased abundance. Forty-five showed abundance changes after submergence treatment with 10 increased and 35 decreased. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that pathways of amino acid metabolism and mitochondrial electron transport/ATP synthesis were only enriched by drought treatment, while other pathways including photosynthesis, biodegradation of xenobiotics, oxidative pentose phosphate, glycolysis and redox were commonly over-represented after both drought and submergence treatments. Metabolomic analysis indicated that most of the metabolites were up-regulated by drought stress, while 34 of 40 metabolites contents exhibited down-regulation or no significant changes when exposed to submergence stress, including sugars and sugar alcohols. These data indicated that drought stress extensively promoted photosynthesis and redox metabolisms while submergence stress caused declined metabolisms and dormancy in Cynodon dactylon. Taken together, the quiescence strategy with retarded growth might allow bermudagrass to be adaptive to long-term submerged environment, while activation of photosynthesis and redox, and accumulation of compatible solutes and molecular chaperones increased bermudagrass tolerance to drought stress.
Highlights
Drought and flooding are major abiotic factors limiting plant growth and development which happened from time to time worldwide
These results indicated that both drought and submergence treatments caused severe cell membrane damages and greatly inhibited bermudagrass growth
Plants periodically exposed to drought and submergence stresses in field condition which greatly inhibited plant growth, development and production
Summary
Drought and flooding are major abiotic factors limiting plant growth and development which happened from time to time worldwide. Drought stress induces the accumulation of the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), which leads to stomatal closure for maintaining water status in plant cells under water-deficit conditions (Ren et al, 2010; Zhao et al, 2013). Flooding is another form of water stress that results from excess water, which affects about 10% of the global land area. Flood-susceptible rice cultivars avoid submergence via activation of SUB1C expression which is promoted by gibberellic acid (GA) and is associated with rapid degradation of carbohydrate reserves and enhanced elongation of leaves and internodes (Bailey-Serres and Voesenek, 2008; Xu et al, 2006)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
