Protein hydrolysates enhance recovery from drought stress in tomato plants: phenomic and metabolomic insights
Author(s)
Leporino, MARZIA
Rouphael, YOUSSEF
Bonini, PAOLO
Colla, GIUSEPPE
Cardarelli, MARIATERESA
Date Issued
2024
Type
article
Journal
Abstract
High-throughput phenotyping technologies together with
metabolomics analysis can speed up the development of highly efficient and
effective biostimulants for enhancing crop tolerance to drought stress. The aim
of this study was to examine the morphophysiological and metabolic changes in
tomato plants foliarly treated with two protein hydrolysates obtained by
enzymatic hydrolysis of vegetal proteins from Malvaceae (PH1) or Fabaceae
(PH2) in comparison with a control treatment, as well as to investigate the
mechanisms involved in the enhancement of plant resistance to repeated
drought stress cycles. A phenotyping devicewas used for dailymonitoringmorphophysiological
traits while untargeted metabolomics analysis was carried out in leaves of the best
performing treatment based on phenotypic results. PH1 treatment was the most effective in enhancing plant resistance to
water stress due to the better recovery of digital biomass and 3D leaf area after
each water stress event while PH2 was effective in mitigating water stress only
during the recovery period after the first drought stress event. Metabolomics data
indicated that PH1 modified primary metabolism by increasing the concentration
of dipeptides and fatty acids in comparison with untreated control, as well as
secondary metabolism by regulating several compounds like phenols. In
contrast, hormones and compounds involved in detoxification or signal
molecules against reactive oxygen species were downregulated in comparison
with untreated control. The above findings demonstrated the advantages of a combined
phenomics-metabolomics approach for elucidating the relationship between
metabolic and morphophysiological changes associated with a biostimulantmediated
increase of crop resistance to repeated water stress events.