ALBERT

Beschreibung: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Aims〈/h3〉 〈p〉Subtropical ecosystems are generally characterized by phosphorus (P)-deficient soils; however, extreme P-rich soils develop on phosphate rocks. We aimed to integrate metabolomic and ionomic analyses to survey how in situ trees adaptively respond to such contrasting P soils.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Methods〈/h3〉 〈p〉Gas (GC-MS) or liquid (LC-MS) chromatography-mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) were used to analyze leaf metabolome and ionome of 〈em〉Quercus variabilis〈/em〉, which grew at two geologic P-rich and P-deficient sites in subtropical China.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Results〈/h3〉 〈p〉Two 〈em〉Q. variabilis〈/em〉 populations were significantly discriminated in terms of metabolome and ionome, with major contributions from 25 identified metabolites (e.g. sugars and P-containing compounds) and P and four other chemical elements. And of these 25 metabolites, orthophosphate was predominant in influencing the variation in the metabolomes of 〈em〉Q. variabilis〈/em〉 between the two P-type sites. Moreover, orthophosphate was correlated with leaf P (〈em〉r〈/em〉 = 0.85, 〈em〉p〈/em〉 〈 0.001), while leaf P was significantly influenced only by soil resident P at the P-rich site. Furthermore, the metabolic pathway analysis indicated four critical metabolic pathways: galactose metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, fructose and mannose metabolism.〈/p〉 〈/span〉 〈span〉 〈h3〉Conclusions〈/h3〉 〈p〉These findings suggested that there were distinct ionome-metabolome interactions in 〈em〉Q. variabilis〈/em〉 populations, between P-rich and P-deficient sites, which contributed to novel insights into how plants interactively adapt to P-limiting soils.〈/p〉 〈/span〉