Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.

<h4>Background</h4>Tropical rainforests are frequently limited by soil nutrient availability. However, the response of the metabolic phenotypic plasticity of trees to an increase of soil nutrient availabilities is poorly understood. We expected that increases in the ability of a nutrient...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Albert Gargallo-Garriga, S Joseph Wright, Jordi Sardans, Míriam Pérez-Trujillo, Michal Oravec, Kristýna Večeřová, Otmar Urban, Marcos Fernández-Martínez, Teodor Parella, Josep Peñuelas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177030&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849472626477498368
author Albert Gargallo-Garriga
S Joseph Wright
Jordi Sardans
Míriam Pérez-Trujillo
Michal Oravec
Kristýna Večeřová
Otmar Urban
Marcos Fernández-Martínez
Teodor Parella
Josep Peñuelas
author_facet Albert Gargallo-Garriga
S Joseph Wright
Jordi Sardans
Míriam Pérez-Trujillo
Michal Oravec
Kristýna Večeřová
Otmar Urban
Marcos Fernández-Martínez
Teodor Parella
Josep Peñuelas
author_sort Albert Gargallo-Garriga
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Tropical rainforests are frequently limited by soil nutrient availability. However, the response of the metabolic phenotypic plasticity of trees to an increase of soil nutrient availabilities is poorly understood. We expected that increases in the ability of a nutrient that limits some plant processes should be detected by corresponding changes in plant metabolome profile related to such processes.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We studied the foliar metabolome of saplings of three abundant tree species in a 15 year field NPK fertilization experiment in a Panamanian rainforest. The largest differences were among species and explained 75% of overall metabolome variation. The saplings of the large canopy species, Tetragastris panamensis, had the lowest concentrations of all identified amino acids and the highest concentrations of most identified secondary compounds. The saplings of the "mid canopy" species, Alseis blackiana, had the highest concentrations of amino acids coming from the biosynthesis pathways of glycerate-3P, oxaloacetate and α-ketoglutarate, and the saplings of the low canopy species, Heisteria concinna, had the highest concentrations of amino acids coming from the pyruvate synthesis pathways.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>The changes in metabolome provided strong evidence that different nutrients limit different species in different ways. With increasing P availability, the two canopy species shifted their metabolome towards larger investment in protection mechanisms, whereas with increasing N availability, the sub-canopy species increased its primary metabolism. The results highlighted the proportional distinct use of different nutrients by different species and the resulting different metabolome profiles in this high diversity community are consistent with the ecological niche theory.
format Article
id doaj-art-11c150fa637c49219b654cbe250cce26
institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2017-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-11c150fa637c49219b654cbe250cce262025-08-20T03:24:28ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-01125e017703010.1371/journal.pone.0177030Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.Albert Gargallo-GarrigaS Joseph WrightJordi SardansMíriam Pérez-TrujilloMichal OravecKristýna VečeřováOtmar UrbanMarcos Fernández-MartínezTeodor ParellaJosep Peñuelas<h4>Background</h4>Tropical rainforests are frequently limited by soil nutrient availability. However, the response of the metabolic phenotypic plasticity of trees to an increase of soil nutrient availabilities is poorly understood. We expected that increases in the ability of a nutrient that limits some plant processes should be detected by corresponding changes in plant metabolome profile related to such processes.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We studied the foliar metabolome of saplings of three abundant tree species in a 15 year field NPK fertilization experiment in a Panamanian rainforest. The largest differences were among species and explained 75% of overall metabolome variation. The saplings of the large canopy species, Tetragastris panamensis, had the lowest concentrations of all identified amino acids and the highest concentrations of most identified secondary compounds. The saplings of the "mid canopy" species, Alseis blackiana, had the highest concentrations of amino acids coming from the biosynthesis pathways of glycerate-3P, oxaloacetate and α-ketoglutarate, and the saplings of the low canopy species, Heisteria concinna, had the highest concentrations of amino acids coming from the pyruvate synthesis pathways.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>The changes in metabolome provided strong evidence that different nutrients limit different species in different ways. With increasing P availability, the two canopy species shifted their metabolome towards larger investment in protection mechanisms, whereas with increasing N availability, the sub-canopy species increased its primary metabolism. The results highlighted the proportional distinct use of different nutrients by different species and the resulting different metabolome profiles in this high diversity community are consistent with the ecological niche theory.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177030&type=printable
spellingShingle Albert Gargallo-Garriga
S Joseph Wright
Jordi Sardans
Míriam Pérez-Trujillo
Michal Oravec
Kristýna Večeřová
Otmar Urban
Marcos Fernández-Martínez
Teodor Parella
Josep Peñuelas
Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
PLoS ONE
title Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
title_full Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
title_fullStr Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
title_full_unstemmed Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
title_short Long-term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position.
title_sort long term fertilization determines different metabolomic profiles and responses in saplings of three rainforest tree species with different adult canopy position
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177030&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT albertgargallogarriga longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT sjosephwright longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT jordisardans longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT miriampereztrujillo longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT michaloravec longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT kristynavecerova longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT otmarurban longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT marcosfernandezmartinez longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT teodorparella longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition
AT joseppenuelas longtermfertilizationdeterminesdifferentmetabolomicprofilesandresponsesinsaplingsofthreerainforesttreespecieswithdifferentadultcanopyposition