Metabolic response of maize plants to multi‐factorial abiotic stresses

Clarification of the metabolic mechanisms underlying multi‐stress responses in plants will allow further optimisation of crop breeding and cultivation to obtain high yields in an increasingly variable environment. Using NMR metabolomic techniques, we examined the metabolic responses of maize plants grown under different conditions: soil drought, soil salinity, heat and multiple concurrent stresses. A detailed time‐course metabolic profile was also performed on maize plants sampled 1, 3 and 7 days after initiation of soil drought and heat stress. The metabolic profile of maize plants subjected to soil drought was more similar to plants exposed to salt stress than to heat‐stressed plants. Drought‐stressed maize plants subjected to salt or heat stress showed distinct integrated metabolic profiles compared with those exposed to either stressor individually. These differences show the considerable metabolic plasticity of maize in response to different growth conditions. Moreover, glucose, fructose, malate, citrate, proline, alanine, aspartate, asparagine, threonine and one unknown compound fluctuated obviously between maize plants grown in controlled growth cabinet and a natural regime. These changes were associated with the TCA cycle and core nitrogen metabolism, and could be related to their multiple functions during plant growth. The evident stress‐induced trajectory of metabolic changes in maize indicated that the primary metabolic responses to soil drought, heat and combined drought and heat stresses occurred in a time‐dependent manner. Plasticity at the metabolic level may allow maize plants to acclimatise their metabolic ranges in response to changing environmental conditions.