Open Access

ARTICLE

Growth, ROS Markers, Antioxidant Enzymes, Osmotic Regulators and Metabolic Changes in Tartary Buckwheat Subjected to Short Drought

Yan Wan^1,#, Yuan Liang^1,#, Xuxiao Gong^1,#, Jianyong Ouyang¹, Jingwei Huang², Xiaoyong Wu¹, Qi Wu¹, Changying Liu¹, Xueling Ye¹, Xiaoning Cao³, Gang Zhao¹, Liang Zou^1,*, Dabing Xiang^1,*

1 Key Laboratory of Coarse Cereal Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Sichuan Engineering & Technology Research Center of Coarse Cereal Industrialization, College of Food and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610106, China
2 School of Preclinical Medicine, Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610106, China
3 Center for Agricultural Genetic Resources Research, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan, 030031, China

* Corresponding Authors: Liang Zou. Email: ; Dabing Xiang. Email:
# This author contributed equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant Physiology for Crop Production and Sustainable Agriculture)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(1), 35-54. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.021698

Received 31 January 2022; Accepted 18 April 2022; Issue published 06 September 2022

Abstract

Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is an important pseudocereal feed crop with medicinal and nutritional value. Drought is one of the main causes of reduced growth and yield in these plants. We investigated the growth, physiological, and metabolic responses of the widely promoted Tartary buckwheat variety Chuan Qiao No. 1 to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated drought stress. Drought significantly decreased shoot length, shoot biomass and relative water content. Root length, malondialdehyde content, electrolyte leakage, activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase and amylase, and contents of soluble sugar, soluble protein and proline were increased by PEG-mediated drought. Untargeted metabolomics analysis identified 32 core metabolites in seedlings subjected to PEG-mediated drought, 16 of which increased—including quercetin, isovitexin, cyanidin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside, L-arginine, and glycerophosphocholine, while the other 16 decreased—including 3-methoxytyramine, 2, 6-diaminopimelic acid, citric acid, UDP-alpha-D-glucose, adenosine, keto-D-fructose. The 32 core metabolites were enriched in 29 metabolic pathways, including lysine biosynthesis, citrate (TCA) cycle, anthocyanin biosynthesis, and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis. Among them, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, flavor and flavor biosynthesis, indole alkaline biosynthesis, and alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism were the four main metabolic pathways affected by drought. Our findings provide new insights into the physiological and metabolic response mechanisms of Tartary buckwheat to drought stress.

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