Open AccessHigh-resolution magic angle spinning NMR studies for metabolic characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with enhanced growth characteristics
Author(s) -
Dieuwertje Augustijn,
Niels van Tol,
Bert J. van der Zaal,
Huub J. M. de Groot,
A. Alia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0209695
Subject(s) - mutant , arabidopsis , arabidopsis thaliana , magic angle spinning , metabolite , biology , biomass (ecology) , metabolic pathway , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , botany , chemistry , gene , nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , stereochemistry , agronomy
Developing smart crops which yield more biomass to meet the increasing demand for plant biomass has been an active area of research in last few decades. We investigated metabolic alterations in two Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with enhanced growth characteristics that were previously obtained from a collection of plant lines expressing artificial transcription factors. The metabolic profiles were obtained directly from intact Arabidopsis leaves using high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) NMR. Multivariate analysis showed significant alteration of metabolite levels between the mutants and the wild-type Col-0. Interestingly, most of the metabolites that were reduced in the faster-growing mutants are generally involved in the defence against stress. These results suggest a growth-defence trade-off in the phenotypically engineered mutants. Our results further corroborate the idea that plant growth can be enhanced by suppressing defence pathways.