Abstract
Plant metabolites are known as biological compounds that are essential to the growth and development of a plant and have a direct impact on yield and biochemical constituents of plants. For this study, the objective was to conduct primary metabolomics analysis using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. African horned cucumber fruits were harvested from plants grown under pots experiment (greenhouse, shade net and open field), soil types (loamy soil and sandy loam) and three water stress levels (no water stress-100%—3L, moderate water stress-75%—2L, and severe water stress-35%—1L) during 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. Results showed that the treatment of no water stress combined with sandy loam under shade net environment, significantly increased asparagine content from 10 × 106 to 80 × 106 peak intensity. The treatment of no water stress, in combination with sandy loam soil under open field environment increased 4-hydroxyproline from 10 × 106 to 90 × 106 peak intensity compared to other treatments. It can be deduced that the treatment combination of (no water stress and moderate water stress) and all soil types, under greenhouse environment increased most metabolites content of the fruit when compared to other treatments. Therefore, it subsequently has potential to affect fruit quality such as taste and other biochemical constituents.
Highlights
The results in (Table 2) on the African horned cucumber stomatal conductance demonstrated a substantial interaction between different water stress levels and soil types under varying growing environment during different seasons
Severe water stress and sandy loam soil resulted in a decrease from 67.6 to 34.8 mmol m−2, during season one [2017/2018], but moderate water stress and sandy loam soil during the same season [2017/18], resulted in an increase from 34.8 to 67.6 mmol m −2 in an open field environment
The findings of this study revealed that in a greenhouse environment, the interaction of water stress levels and soil types resulted in a significant increase in the content of most primary metabolites in African horned cucumber fruit, whereas some primary metabolites were significantly affected by either water stress levels or soil types in different environments
Summary
The endogenous metabolites, which happen to be of low molecular mass, provide a precise snapshot of the physiological state in biological samples[1–4]. Singh et al 21 concur w ith[22], that fruit harvested from water stress conditions has high metabolites content due to the abnormal rate of enzymic activities caused by imbalanced liquid concentration within the xylem Metabolite such as asparagine has been reported b y5 as being responsible for filling of nitrogen in fruit seeds. Stomatal closer due to water stress tend to negatively affect its concentration in fruits, since there is minimal gaseous exchange on the plant leaves.[23] stated that metabolite dopa is known to be a compound released by plants, primarily to inhibit neighbouring plants’ growth and dominance Authors such a s4 explained the function of metabolite niacinamide as being responsible for protection of cell leakage and DNA damage caused by environmental stress. The objectives of this research were to assess differences between the profile of samples from the experimental treatments and quantify the different metabolites between samples so that breeders can have a better understanding of the actual cause of variation in fruit quality of African horned cucumber crop
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