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JXB Advance Access originally published online on August 10, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(14):4089-4103; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp243
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Metabolic responses to salt stress of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars, Sahara and Clipper, which differ in salinity tolerance

Widodo1 *, John H. Patterson1, Ed Newbigin2, Mark Tester3, Antony Bacic1 and Ute Roessner1,{dagger}

1Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 3010 VIC, Australia
2Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 3010 VIC, Australia
3Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond, 5064 SA, Australia

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: u.roessner{at}unimelb.edu.au

Plants show varied cellular responses to salinity that are partly associated with maintaining low cytosolic Na+ levels and a high K+/Na+ ratio. Plant metabolites change with elevated Na+, some changes are likely to help restore osmotic balance while others protect Na+-sensitive proteins. Metabolic responses to salt stress are described for two barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars, Sahara and Clipper, which differed in salinity tolerance under the experimental conditions used. After 3 weeks of salt treatment, Clipper ceased growing whereas Sahara resumed growth similar to the control plants. Compared with Clipper, Sahara had significantly higher leaf Na+ levels and less leaf necrosis, suggesting they are more tolerant to accumulated Na+. Metabolite changes in response to the salt treatment also differed between the two cultivars. Clipper plants had elevated levels of amino acids, including proline and GABA, and the polyamine putrescine, consistent with earlier suggestions that such accumulation may be correlated with slower growth and/or leaf necrosis rather than being an adaptive response to salinity. It is suggested that these metabolites may be an indicator of general cellular damage in plants. By contrast, in the more tolerant Sahara plants, the levels of the hexose phosphates, TCA cycle intermediates, and metabolites involved in cellular protection increased in response to salt. These solutes remain unchanged in the more sensitive Clipper plants. It is proposed that these responses in the more tolerant Sahara are involved in cellular protection in the leaves and are involved in the tolerance of Sahara leaves to high Na+.

Key words: Barley, GC-MS, metabolomics, salt stress, tissue tolerance

* Present address: Crop Production and Environment Division, Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences, 1-1, Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Received 27 May 2009; Revised 9 July 2009 Accepted 13 July 2009


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