Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1480079
This article is part of the Research Topic Essence of Survival: Impact of Primary and Secondary Metabolism on Plant Acclimation to Abiotic Stress View all articles

Response mechanism of major secondary metabolites of Polygonatum kingianum to selenium nanoparticles

Provisionally accepted
Xiaolin Wan Xiaolin Wan *Jiehua Wang Jiehua Wang *Jiaxin Zhang Jiaxin Zhang *Hongshi Cui Hongshi Cui *Lingjun Cui Lingjun Cui *Qiang Xiao Qiang Xiao *
  • Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) can be absorbed by plants, thereby affecting plant physiological activity, regulating gene expression, and altering metabolite content.However, the molecular mechanisms by which exogenous selenium affects Polygonatum kingianum coll.et Hemsl plant secondary metabolites remain unclear. We exposed P. kingianum plants to SeNPs at 0, 10, 25, and 50 mg/L concentrations. Joint physiological, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses were performed to reveal the response mechanisms of major secondary metabolites of P. kingianum to SeNPs. Under the treatment of 25mg/L, the rate of photosynthetic electron transport in plants increased significantly, and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio decreased significantly. In parallel, the main active components, polysaccharides, and saponins, showed a significant increase in content, while flavonoid content decreased. SeNPs affect polysaccharide accumulation mainly through up-regulation of SPS, UGPase, AGPase, UTP, and SUS genes in starch and sucrose metabolic pathways. The accumulation of saponins was affected by upregulating genes in the sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis pathways, including PAD, ADH, PK, and GS. The accumulation of flavonoids was mainly regulated by metabolic pathways such as flavonoid biosynthesis, isoflavonoid biosynthesis, and the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids. In summary, this study reveals the key metabolic pathways affected by SeNPs in the main secondary metabolic products of P. kingianum.

    Keywords: Selenium nanoparticles, Polygonatum kingianum Coll. et Hemsl, secondary metabolism, Transcriptome, Metabolome

    Received: 13 Aug 2024; Accepted: 29 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wan, Wang, Zhang, Cui, Cui and Xiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xiaolin Wan, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China
    Jiehua Wang, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China
    Jiaxin Zhang, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China
    Hongshi Cui, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China
    Lingjun Cui, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China
    Qiang Xiao, Hubei Minzu University, Enshi, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.