A dual-omics approach for profiling plant responses to biostimulant applications under controlled and field conditions

Ali Baghdadi; Maria Cristina Della Lucia; Matteo Borella; Giovanni Bertoldo; Samathmika Ravi; Walter Zegada-Lizarazu; Claudia Chiodi; Elena Pagani; Christian Hermans; Piergiorgio Stevanato; Serenella Nardi; Andrea Monti; Francesca Mangione

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.983772

A dual-omics approach for profiling plant responses to biostimulant applications under controlled and field conditions

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 26:13:983772. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.983772. eCollection 2022.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
² Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy.
³ Crop Production and Biostimulation Laboratory, Brussels Bioengineering School, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
⁴ Sipcam Italia S.p.A. belonging together with Sofbey SA to the Sipcam Oxon S.p.A. Group, Pero, MI, Italy.

Abstract

A comprehensive approach using phenomics and global transcriptomics for dissecting plant response to biostimulants is illustrated with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom and Rio Grande) plants cultivated in the laboratory, greenhouse, and open field conditions. Biostimulant treatment based on an Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE) was applied as a foliar spray with two doses (1 or 2 l ha^-1) at three different phenological stages (BBCH51, BBCH61, and BBCH65) during the flowering phase. Both ANE doses resulted in greater net photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, and fruit yield across all culture conditions. A global transcriptomic analysis of leaves from plants grown in the climate chamber, revealed a greater number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with the low ANE dose compared to the greater one. The second and third applications induced broader transcriptome changes compared to the first one, indicating a cumulative treatment effect. The functional enrichment analysis of DEGs highlighted pathways related to stimulus-response and photosynthesis, consistent with the morpho-physiological observations. This study is the first comprehensive dual-omics approach for profiling plant responses to biostimulants across three different culture conditions.

Keywords: Ascophyllum nodosum; biostimulant; crop yield; plant physiology; tomato; transcriptome.