Browsing by Subject "Stress memory"

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Guard cell‐specific metabolic responses to drought stress in maize
(2025) Lehr, Patrick Pascal; Erban, Alexander; Hartwig, Roman Paul; Wimmer, Monika Andrea; Kopka, Joachim; Zörb, Christian
Understanding crop responses to drought stress is crucial for securing future agricultural productivity. Guard cells regulate transpiration and thus the yield burden under drought conditions. Therefore, the influence of repeated drought stress on the guard cell metabolome of Zea mays L. was investigated to improve our understanding of crop resilience mechanisms. A controlled greenhouse experiment with physiological evaluation and a non‐targeted metabolomics approach was used to analyse unprimed and primed guard cells. Primed and unprimed maize plants showed similar overall physiological and metabolic responses to drought, with gas exchange and general metabolic patterns largely unaffected by priming. However, distinct priming effects emerged in specific metabolites. Metabolites of the alanine and aspartate pathway, as well as those of the glycine, serine and threonine pathway were less impacted by drought stress in guard cells than in mesophyll cells, suggesting the emphasis of plants to maintain stable guard cell metabolomes for functional integrity. In contrast, the increase in sugar concentrations in guard cells was similar to that in mesophyll cells, suggesting a pivotal role of sugars in guard cells during drought conditions. New insights into cell type‐specific metabolic responses to drought stress will contribute to a better understanding of stress memory in maize. Enhancing guard cell resilience could help optimise water use efficiency for sustainable agricultural production under climate change conditions.
Nitrogen improves the recovery of maize plants under repeated drought stress
(2022) Maywald, Niels Julian; Hernández‐Pridybailo, Andrés; Ludewig, Uwe
Background: Modern high-yielding crops, such as maize, are characterized by extensive yield stability across various environments and can cope with repetitive periods of moderate water shortage. However, there is conflicting evidence on how the nutritional status of the plants contributes to stress resilience and whether farmers have management options via nitrogen fertilization. Aims: We aimed at identifying factors relevant for improved growth recovery of maize after repeated water deficit stress (WDS). Methods: A pot experiment with maize and repeated WDS was conducted. Growth and recovery from stress and physiological parameters were measured. Results: The growth penalty of juvenile maize plants exposed to a moderate WDS was lost after additional exposure to a 2-week WDS. Primed plants transiently contained more osmolytes and performed superior in the second recovery phase when nitrogen fertilization was applied directly before the second WDS. Nitrogen fertilization did not affect the osmolyte quantity, and primed plants had transiently higher antioxidant levels, higher reactive oxygen species production and recovered more quickly with N addition. Conclusions: Pot experiments suggest that nitrogen fertilization may be an option to improve maize resilience to repeated WDS, a hypothesis that should be tested more rigorously in the field.