Lipidomic remodeling of contrasting maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids under
repeated drought
- Markus Kränzlein,
- Sandra Schmöckel,
- Christoph-Martin Geilfus,
- Waltraud Schulze,
- Michael Altenbuchinger,
- Holger Hrenn,
- Ute Roessner,
- Christian Zörb
Sandra Schmöckel
Universitat Hohenheim Institut fur Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften
Author ProfileUte Roessner
Australian National University Research School of Biology
Author ProfileChristian Zörb
Universitat Hohenheim Institut fur Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften
Author ProfileAbstract
The role of recovery after drought has been proposed to play a more
prominent role during the whole drought-adaption process than previously
thought. Two maize hybrids with comparable growth but contrasting
physiological responses were investigated using physiological, metabolic
and lipidomic tools to understand the plants' strategies of lipid
remodeling in response to repeated drought stimuli. Profound differences
in adaptation between hybrids were discovered during the recovery phase
of lipidomic adaptation, which likely gave rise to different degrees of
sensitivity to the subsequent drought event. These differences in
adaptation are visible in galactolipid metabolism and fatty acid
saturation patterns during recovery and may lead to a lipidomic
dysregulation in the sensitive maize hybrid. Moreover, the more drought
tolerant hybrid displays more changes of metabolite and lipid abundance
with higher number of differences within individual lipids, despite of a
lower physiological response, while the responses in the sensitive
hybrid are higher in magnitude, but lower in significance on the level
of individual lipids and metabolites. This study suggests that lipid
remodeling during recovery plays a key role in the drought response of
plants.