Arabidopsis Plants Acclimate to Water Deficit at Low Cost through Changes of Carbon Usage

Water deficit is one of the environmental stresses that hamper production in plants. It has been reported that plants exposed to soil water deficit exhibit altered growth patterns and carbon usage. Irene Hummel of Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux in France, together with other scientists, used Arabidopsis plants to investigate the effect of continuous soil water deficit on growth, carbon balance, metabolites, enzymes of central metabolism, and a set of sugar-responsive genes.

The researchers found out that under drought conditions, there is decreased expansion rate of the leaf rosette. This led to a more positive carbon balance and root growth. Potassium, organic acids, and carbon metabolites levels also increased. No carbon metabolism was observed. The condition also induced an alteration in the expression level of a set of sugar-responsive genes which implies that carbon concentration increased. This shows that all these responses to soil water deficit occurred without the need for major reformatting of the primary metabolism machinery.

The complete article released by Plant Physiology journal is available at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/154/1/357.