Comparison with Arabidopsis reveals optimal nitrogen allocation strategy and mechanism in Chorispora bungeana, a cryophyte with strong freezing tolerance

Abstract

The stress responses of plant compete for resources with growth and development. Resource allocations among these processes may have been optimized in plants adapted to natural habitats. Here, nitrogen (N) allocations were compared in leaves of Arabidopsis and Chorispora bungeana, a cryophyte with strong freezing tolerance. The results showed that the two species differed not only in N partitions among N forms and allocations among leaves, but also in their responses to cold stress. Interestingly, leaf protein contents were enhanced in C. bungeana while reduced in Arabidopsis, though the N allocations to leaves were reduced in both plants upon cold stress. Profoundly, when grown at warm temperature, contents of total free amino acids (FAAs) in leaves of C. bungeana were 6-11 times higher than those in Arabidopsis. In contrast, cold treatment induced FAAs accumulation in leaves of Arabidopsis without having significant effect in any leaf of C. bungeana. Considerable discrepancy was also found between the two species in the expressions of nitrate transporter genes and the activities of nitrate assimilation enzymes. Correlation and network analysis showed that most NPFs were clustered in a single network module and had loose relations with protein synthesis in Arabidopsis, while they were distributed in different modules in a decentralized network in C. bungeana. Therefore, our results reveal that C. bungeana may have optimized its N allocation strategy by producing and storing amino acids as efficient N reserve and adopting a decentralized network for N utilization, which may equip the plant with powerful capabilities for environmental adaptions.

Keywords: Cold stress; Freezing tolerance; Network analysis; Nitrogen allocation; Nitrogen partition; Optimal control theory.