Plasticity in metabolism underpins local responses to nitrogen in Arabidopsis thaliana populations

Prashant K Pandey; Jing Yu; Nooshin Omranian; Saleh Alseekh; Neha Vaid; Alisdair R Fernie; Zoran Nikoloski; Roosa A E Laitinen

doi:10.1002/pld3.186

Plasticity in metabolism underpins local responses to nitrogen in Arabidopsis thaliana populations

Plant Direct. 2019 Nov 29;3(11):e00186. doi: 10.1002/pld3.186. eCollection 2019 Nov.

Authors

Prashant K Pandey¹, Jing Yu¹, Nooshin Omranian¹, Saleh Alseekh¹, Neha Vaid¹, Alisdair R Fernie¹, Zoran Nikoloski^{1

2}, Roosa A E Laitinen¹

Affiliations

¹ Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam Germany.
² Bioinformatics Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam Potsdam Germany.

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is central for plant growth, and metabolic plasticity can provide a strategy to respond to changing N availability. We showed that two local A. thaliana populations exhibited differential plasticity in the compounds of photorespiratory and starch degradation pathways in response to three N conditions. Association of metabolite levels with growth-related and fitness traits indicated that controlled plasticity in these pathways could contribute to local adaptation and play a role in plant evolution.

Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; natural variation; nitrogen availability; photorespiration; plasticity.