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Title: Non-targeted Metabolomics in Diverse Sorghum Breeding Lines Indicates Primary and Secondary Metabolite Profiles Are Associated with Plant Biomass Accumulation and Photosynthesis

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Plant Science
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [1]
  1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management
  2. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
  3. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility
  4. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  5. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility

Metabolomics is an emerging method to improve our understanding of how genetic diversity affects phenotypic variation in plants. Recent studies have demonstrated that genotype has a major influence on biochemical variation in several types of plant tissues, however, the association between metabolic variation and variation in morphological and physiological traits is largely unknown. Sorghum bicolor (L.) is an important food and fuel crop with extensive genetic and phenotypic variation. Sorghum lines have been bred for differing phenotypes beneficial for production of grain (food), stem sugar (food, fuel), and cellulosic biomass (forage, fuel), and these varying phenotypes are the end products of innate metabolic programming which determines how carbon is allocated during plant growth and development. Further, sorghum has been adapted among highly diverse environments. Because of this geographic and phenotypic variation, the sorghum metabolome is expected to be highly divergent; however, metabolite variation in sorghum has not been characterized. Here, we utilize a phenotypically diverse panel of sorghum breeding lines to identify associations between leaf metabolites and morpho-physiological traits. The panel (11 lines) exhibited significant variation for 21 morpho-physiological traits, as well as broader trends in variation by sorghum type (grain vs. biomass types). Variation was also observed for cell wall constituents (glucan, xylan, lignin, ash). Non-targeted metabolomics analysis of leaf tissue showed that 956 of 1181 metabolites varied among the lines (81%, ANOVA, FDR adjusted p < 0.05). Both univariate and multivariate analyses determined relationships between metabolites and morpho-physiological traits, and 384 metabolites correlated with at least one trait (32%, p < 0.05), including many secondary metabolites such as glycosylated flavonoids and chlorogenic acids. The use of metabolomics to explain relationships between two or more morpho-physiological traits was explored and showed chlorogenic and shikimic acid to be associated with photosynthesis, early plant growth and final biomass measures in sorghum. In conclusion, taken together, this study demonstrates the integration of metabolomics with morpho-physiological datasets to elucidate links between plant metabolism, growth, and architecture.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1279495
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-66879
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 7; ISSN 1664-462X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A large-scale metabolomics study to harness chemical diversity and explore biochemical mechanisms in ryegrass journal March 2019
Common bean varieties demonstrate differential physiological and metabolic responses to the pathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum: Bean-Sclerotinia physiology and metabolism journal March 2018
Metabolomics and Ionomics of Potato Tuber Reveals an Influence of Cultivar and Market Class on Human Nutrients and Bioactive Compounds journal May 2018
Metabolomics for Plant Improvement: Status and Prospects journal August 2017
Plasticity of Sorghum Stem Biomass Accumulation in Response to Water Deficit: A Multiscale Analysis from Internode Tissue to Plant Level journal September 2017
Plant–Soil Feedback Effects on Growth, Defense and Susceptibility to a Soil-Borne Disease in a Cut Flower Crop: Species and Functional Group Effects journal December 2017
Translational Metabolomics: Current Challenges and Future Opportunities journal June 2019
Metabolite profiling and genome-wide association studies reveal response mechanisms of phosphorus deficiency in maize seedling journal January 2019
Distinguishing Six Edible Berries Based on Metabolic Pathway and Bioactivity Correlations by Non-targeted Metabolite Profiling journal October 2018
Non-Targeted Metabolomics Reveals Sorghum Rhizosphere-Associated Exudates are Influenced by the Belowground Interaction of Substrate and Sorghum Genotype journal January 2019