Traits underlying phosphorus use by the extremophyte Eutrema salsugineum

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to study the response of Eutrema salsugineum (Yukon) plants to low phosphate (Pi) using seedlings and four- week-old plants grown on media formulated with variable phosphate (Pi). Seedlings showed similar root architecture whether grown with high Pi or without added Pi. Four-week-old plants grown with 0 or 2.5 mM Pi added to the soil had the same shoot biomass and relative growth rates. Confirmation that plants on low Pi were Pi-deficient despite lacking a Pi-starvation phenotype was provided by the increased expression of Pi-starvation-inducible genes (notably EsIPS2) in Pi-deprived plants. We also found that seedling roots on media lacking Pi did not acidify their rhizosphere nor did they show increased phosphatase secretion or phosphatase activity relative to roots of Pi-sufficient seedlings. In soil-grown plants, leaf P remobilization was slower during dark-induced senescence of Eutrema relative to similarly treated, Pi-starved Arabidopsis. Also related to metabolism, in vitro assays showed that the ratio of maximal PPi- and ATP- dependent phosphofructokinase activities approximated 1:1 and 2:1 for Eutrema leaf and root extracts, respectively, with no Pi-responsive changes found and, relative to Arabidopsis, Eutrema phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activities were high. The enzyme activities suggest Eutrema operates glycolytic by-passes under Pi sufficient and deficient conditions. Finally, transcripts for the transcription factors Phosphate Starvation Response 1 (PHR1) and WRKY75 were not Pi-starvation-inducible and were more abundant in Eutrema leaves than in leaves of Pi-deprived Arabidopsis. Global gene expression showed the leaf and root transcriptomes to be about 90% similar between 0 and 2.5 mM Pi- treated plants with 2,901 differentially expressed genes detected by DESeq2. In summary, Eutrema displays few Pi-starvation responsive traits whether those traits reflect changes at the level of gene expression or plant morphology, behaviour consistent with a specialist that is continuously primed for Pi starvation.