Impact of Ploidy Change on Secondary Metabolites and Photochemical Efficiency in Solanum Bulbocastanum

Abstract

Plants are well known for producing a wide diversity of natural compounds and several strategies have been proposed to enhance their production. Among them, somatic chromosome doubling may represent an effective and inexpensive method. The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of polyploidization on the leaf metabolic profile and content of tetraploids produced from a wild diploid (2n=2x=24) potato species, Solanum bulbocastanum Dun. Photochemical efficiency of tetraploids was also analyzed. Results from HPLC-DAD and LC/MS analyses provided evidence that tetraploid genotypes displayed either a similar or a lower phenylpropanoids, tryptophan, tyrosine and α-chaconine content compared with the diploid parent. Similarly, no significant differences were found among genotypes both for measures of gas and for chlorophyll fluorescence, except for non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Steroidal saponins content revealed superiority of some tetraploids with respect to the diploid parent, suggesting perturbations in the mechanism regulating the biosynthesis of such compounds following polyploidization. Lack of superiority may be attributed to the time required for adjustment, adaptation and evolution after the genomic shock induced by polyploidization, as well as the fact that an optimum ploidy level for each species may be crucial. Our results suggest that polyploidization as a strategy to enhance metabolite production cannot be generalized.

Diploid vs. tetraploid Centaurium erythraea Rafn: A comparative study of regenerative in vitro potential and biosynthetic capacity

“…Betacyanins, the major pigments in fruit of diploid Hylocereus monacanthus and synthetic allotriploid, decreased following genome doubling (Cohen et al, 2013). Similarly, tetraploid genotypes of Solanum bulbocastanum displayed either similar or lower amounts of phenylpropanoids, tryptophan, tyrosine and α-chaconine compared to diploids (Caruso et al, 2013). Furthermore, non-targeted and targeted metabolic profiling of mature leaves from three doubled diploids of citrus and their diploid controls showed that primary metabolism takes priority over specialized metabolism in doubled diploid plants, since the levels of primary metabolites tended to increase and the levels of secondary metabolites tended to decrease (Tan et al, 2017).…”

“…Therefore, manipulation with ploidy, as a biotechnological tool, could be useful in improving pharmaceutical value of medicinal plants, since synthetic autopolyploids usually exhibit increases in bioactive metabolite concentration compared to their diploid progenitors (Javadian et al, 2017;Kong et al, 2017;Lavania et al, 2012;Sadat Noori et al, 2017;Tavan et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2014). However, several studies have shown that polyploidization did not affect the metabolite production (Hull-Sanders et al, 2009;Wohlmuth et al, 2005) or even that the effect of polyploidy on the production of specialized metabolites was negative (Caruso et al, 2013;Cohen et al, 2013;Mansouri and Bagheri, 2017;Tan et al, 2017). Furthermore, in comparison with diploids, polyploids generally produce larger cells which can result in an increased size of plant structures such as leaves, flowers and fruit, increased biomass and often show greater resistance to biotic and abiotic stress (Lavania et al, 2012;Yildiz, 2013).…”

“…Modern biotechnological approaches such as in vitro culture can pose important tools for large scale plant propagation, accumulation of biomass and secondary metabolites as well as for conservation of endangered medicinal plants (Karuppusamy, 2009). Through in vitro culture of selected explants, continuous, reliable source of natural products could be provided (Caruso et al, 2013;Karuppusamy, 2009). Although centaury is characterized with extraordinary manageability in vitro and great regeneration ability (Filipović et al, 2015), to the best of our knowledge, the information on the effects of gene dosage on regeneration capacity is lacking.…”

Large differences in the composition of herbivore communities and seed damage in diploid and autotetraploid plant species

“…Neither it is possible in most of the studies we refer to in the paper. The exceptions are the studies dealing with the content of secondary metabolites working with synthetically created polyploids (Kim et al, 2004;Caruso et al, 2011Caruso et al, , 2013Lavania et al, 2012;Cohen et al, 2013;Xu et al, 2014). The fact that all these studies are dealing with plant chemistry nicely illustrates the fact that chemical studies on synthetic polyploids are much easier than ecological studies.…”

Efeito da alotetraploidização em espécies silvestres de Arachis e mapeamento de QTLs de resistência à ferrugem (Puccinia arachidis Speg.) em população F6 de genoma B

“…O efeito da poliploidia na fotossíntese ainda não está bem elucidado, pois apesar de todas as enzimas envolvidas no processo estarem presentes nos cloroplastos e as plantas poliploides terem um grande número de cloroplastos no mesófilo, Caruso et al (2013) relatam taxas fotossintéticas similares entre plantas diploides e tetraploides.…”