Seasonal variation in non-structural carbohydrates, sucrolytic activity and secondary metabolites in deciduous and perennial Diospyros species sampled in Western Mexico

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 26;12(10):e0187235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187235. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

This study was performed to test the working hypothesis that the primary determinants influencing seasonal driven modifications in carbon mobilization and other key biochemical parameters in leaves of poorly known Diospyros digyna (Ddg; semi-domesticated; perennial) and D. rekoi (Dre; undomesticated; deciduous) trees are determined by environmental growing conditions, agronomic management and physiological plasticity. Thus, biochemical changes in leaves of both trees were recorded seasonally during two successive fruiting years. Trees were randomly sampled in Western Mexico habitats with differing soil quality, climatic conditions, luminosity, and cultivation practices. Leaves of Ddg had consistently higher total chlorophyll contents (CT) that, unexpectedly, peaked in the winter of 2015. In Dre, the highest leaf CT values recorded in the summer of 2015 inversely correlated with low average luminosity and high Chl a/ Chlb ratios. The seasonal CT variations in Dre were congruent with varying luminosity, whereas those in Ddg were probably affected by other factors, such as fluctuating leaf protein contents and the funneling of light energy to foliar non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) accumulation, which were consistently higher than those detected in Dre leaves. Seasonal foliar NSC fluctuations in both species were in agreement with the carbon (C) demands of flowering, fruiting and/ or leaf regrowth. Seasonal changes in foliar hexose to sucrose (Hex/ Suc) ratios coincided with cell wall invertase activity in both species. In Dre, high Hex/ Suc ratios in spring leaves possibly allowed an accumulation of phenolic acids, not observed in Ddg. The above results supported the hypothesis proposed by showing that leaf responses to changing environmental conditions differ in perennial and deciduous Diospyros trees, including a dynamic adjustment of NSCs to supply the C demands imposed by reproduction, leaf regrowth and, possibly, stress.

MeSH terms

  • Carbohydrate Metabolism*
  • Climate
  • Diospyros / metabolism*
  • Ecosystem
  • Mexico
  • Seasons*
  • Soil
  • Sucrose / metabolism*

Substances

  • Soil
  • Sucrose

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt, México) granted a postgraduate scholarship to ERB (code No. 212253). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.