Dynamic metabonomic responses of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants to salt stress

Metabolic responses are important for plant adaptation to osmotic stresses. To understand the dosage and duration dependence of salinity effects on plant metabolisms, we analyzed the metabonome of tobacco plants and its dynamic responses to salt treatments using NMR spectroscopy in combination with multivariate data analysis. Our results showed that the tobacco metabonome was dominated by 40 metabolites including organic acids/bases, amino acids, carbohydrates and choline, pyrimidine, and purine metabolites. A dynamic trajectory was clearly observable for the tobacco metabonomic responses to the dosage of salinity. Short-term low-dose salt stress (50 mM NaCl, 1 day) caused metabolic shifts toward gluconeogenesis with depletion of pyrimidine and purine metabolites. Prolonged salinity with high-dose salt (500 mM NaCl) induced progressive accumulation of osmolytes, such as proline and myo-inositol, and changes in GABA shunt. Such treatments also promoted the shikimate-mediated secondary metabolisms with enhanced biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids. Therefore, salinity caused systems alterations in widespread metabolic networks involving transamination, TCA cycle, gluconeogenesis/glycolysis, glutamate-mediated proline biosynthesis, shikimate-mediated secondary metabolisms, and the metabolisms of choline, pyrimidine, and purine. These findings provided new insights for the tobacco metabolic adaptation to salinity and demonstrated the NMR-based metabonomics as a powerful approach for understanding the osmotic effects on plant biochemistry.