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Witt, S.

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Witt
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Witt, S.

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    Metabolite profiles of maize leaves in drought, heat and combined stress field trials reveal the relationship between metabolism and grain yield
    (American Society of Plant Biologists, 2015) Obata, T.; Witt, S.; Lisec, J.; Palacios-Rojas, N.; Florez-Sarasa, I.; Yousfi, S.; Araus, J.L.; Cairns, J.E.; Fernie, A.R.
    The development of abiotic stress resistant cultivars is of premium importance for the agriculture of developing countries. Further progress in maize performance under stresses is expected by combining marker assisted breeding with metabolite markers. In order to dissect metabolic responses and to identify promising metabolite marker candidates, metabolite profiles of maize leaves were analysed and compared with grain yield in field trials. Plants were grown under well water conditions (control) or exposed to drought, heat and both stresses simultaneously. Trials were conducted in 2010 and 2011 using ten tropical hybrids selected to exhibit diverse abiotic stress tolerance. Drought stress invoked accumulation of many amino acids including isoleucine, valine, threonine and GABA which has been commonly reported in both field and greenhouse experiments in many plant species. Two photorespiratory amino acids, glycine and serine, and myo-inositol also accumulated under drought. Combination of drought and heat invoked relatively few specific responses and most of the metabolic changes were predictable from the sum of the responses to individual stresses. Statistical analysis revealed significant correlation between levels of glycine and myo-inositol and grain yield under drought. Levels of myo-inositol in control conditions were also related to grain yield under drought. Furthermore multiple linear regression models very well explained the variation of grain yield via the combination of several metabolites. These results indicate the importance of photorespiration and raffinose family oligosaccharide metabolism in grain yield under drought and suggest single or multiple metabolites as potential metabolic markers for breeding of abiotic stress tolerant maize.
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    Metabolic and phenotypic responses of greenhouse-grown maize hybrids to experimentally controlled drought stress
    (Elsevier, 2012) Witt, S.; Galicia, L.; Lisec, J.; Cairns, J.E.; Tiessen, A.; Araus, J.L.; Palacios-Rojas, N.; Fernie, A.R.
    Adaptation to abiotic stresses like drought is an important acquirement of agriculturally relevant crops like maize. Development of enhanced drought tolerance in crops grown in climatic zones where drought is a very dominant stress factor therefore plays an essential role in plant breeding. Previous studies demonstrated that corn yield potential and enhanced stress tolerance are associated traits. In this study, we analyzed six different maize hybrids for their ability to deal with drought stress in a greenhouse experiment. We were able to combine data from morphophysiological parameters measured under well-watered conditions and under water restriction with metabolic data from different organs. These different organs possessed distinct metabolite compositions, with the leaf blade displaying the most considerable metabolome changes following water deficiency. Whilst we could show a general increase in metabolite levels under drought stress, including changes in amino acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, and intermediates of the TCA cycle, these changes were not differential between maize hybrids that had previously been designated based on field trial data as either drought-tolerant or susceptible. The fact that data described here resulted from a greenhouse experiment with rather different growth conditions compared to natural ones in the field may explain why tolerance groups could not be confirmed in this study. We were, however, able to highlight several metabolites that displayed conserved responses to drought as well as metabolites whose levels correlated well with certain physiological traits.
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