Metabolic Profiles Reveal Changes in Wild and Cultivated Soybean Seedling Leaves under Salt Stress

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 7; p. e0159622
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jing, Yang, Dongshuang, Li, Mingxia, Shi, Lianxuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21-07-2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Agricultural production; Alkalies - pharmacology; Amino acids; Analysis; Asparagine; Biology and Life Sciences; Breeding; Chlorophyll; Chromatography; Citramalate; Citric acid; Corn; Crop yield; Cultivars; Cultivation; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Environmental aspects; Fatty acids; Gas chromatography; Genetic aspects; Genotype; Glycine max; Glycine max - drug effects; Glycine max - genetics; Glycine max - growth & development; Glycine max - metabolism; Glycine soja; Glycolysis; Ketoglutaric acid; Leaves; Life sciences; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolic Networks and Pathways - drug effects; Metabolism; Metabolites; Metabolome - drug effects; Metabolomics; Metabolomics - methods; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oils & fats; Optimization; Oxidation; Palmitic acid; Phenylalanine; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Plant breeding; Plant growth; Plant Leaves - drug effects; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Plant metabolism; Principal Component Analysis; Salinity; Salinity tolerance; Salt; Salt tolerance; Salts; Scientific imaging; Seedlings; Seedlings - drug effects; Seedlings - metabolism; Seeds; Sodium Chloride - pharmacology; Soil sciences; Soybeans; Stress (Physiology); Stress, Physiological - drug effects; Studies; Tricarboxylic acid cycle; Triticum; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159622

Clarification of the metabolic mechanisms underlying salt stress responses in plants will allow further optimization of crop breeding and cultivation to obtain high yields in saline-alkali land. Here, we characterized 68 differential metabolites of cultivated soybean (Glycine max) and wild soybean (Glycine soja) under neutral-salt and alkali-salt stresses using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics, to reveal the physiological and molecular differences in salt tolerance. According to comparisons of growth parameters under the two kinds of salt stresses, the level of inhibition in wild soybean was lower than in cultivated soybean, especially under alkali-salt stress. Moreover, wild soybean contained significantly higher amounts of phenylalanine, asparagine, citraconic acid, citramalic acid, citric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid under neutral-salt stress, and higher amounts of palmitic acid, lignoceric acid, glucose, citric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid under alkali-salt stress, than cultivated soybean. Further investigations demonstrated that the ability of wild soybean to salt tolerance was mainly based on the synthesis of organic and amino acids, and the more active tricarboxylic acid cycle under neutral-salt stress. In addition, the metabolite profiling analysis suggested that the energy generation from β-oxidation, glycolysis and the citric acid cycle plays important roles under alkali-salt stress. Our results extend the understanding of mechanisms involved in wild soybean salt tolerance and provide an important reference for increasing yields and developing salt-tolerant soybean cultivars.