Biomass allocation in response to accession recognition in Arabidopsis thaliana depends on nutrient availability and plant age

Abstract

Many organisms have evolved to identify and respond to differences in genetic relatedness between conspecifics, allowing them to select between competitive and facilitative strategies to improve fitness. Due to their sessile nature, plants frequently draw from the same pool of nutrients, and the ability to limit competition between closely related conspecifics would be advantageous. Studies with Arabidopsis thaliana have confirmed that plants can detect variations at the accession level and alter their root system architecture (RSA) in response, presumably for regulating nutrient uptake. The phenotypic impact of this accession-recognition on the RSA is influenced by nutrient availability, underscoring the importance of plant-plant recognition in their growth and fitness. Thus far, these observations have been limited to short-term studies (<21 days) of only the RSA of this model angiosperm. Here we exploit nutrient-mediated regulation of accession-recognition to observe how this plant-plant recognition phenomenon influences growth from germination to flowering in A. thaliana . Our work identifies root and shoot traits that are affected by nutrient-mediated accession recognition. By coupling phenotypic assays to mass spectrometry-based studies of primary metabolite distribution, we provide preliminary insight into the biochemical underpinnings of the changes observed during these plant-plant responses. Most notably that late-stage changes in sucrose metabolism in members of the same accession drove early flowering. This work underscores the need to evaluate accession-recognition under the context of nutrient availability and consider responses throughout the plant’s life, not simply at the earliest stages of interaction.