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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Differential effects of elevated CO2 on awn and glume metabolism in durum wheat (Triticum durum)

Guillaume Tcherkez https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3339-956X A B * , Sinda Ben Mariem C , Iván Jauregui D , Luis Larraya D , Jose M. García-Mina E , Angel M. Zamarreño E , Andreas Fangmeier F and Iker Aranjuelo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8231-5043 C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Research School of Biology, ANU Joint College of Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

B Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences, INRA d’Angers, Université d’Angers, Structure Fédérative de Recherche QUASAV, 42 rue Georges Morel, Beaucouzé 49071, France.

C AgroBiotechnology Institute (IdAB), CSIC-Government of Navarre, Av. Pamplona 123, Mutilva 31006, Spain.

D Institute for Multidisciplinary Applied Biology, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Campus Arrosadia, Pamplona 31006, Spain.

E Universidad de Navarra, Facultades de Ciencias y Farmacia y Nutrición, Grupo de Biología y Química Agrícola (Departamento de Biología Ambiental), c/Irunlarrea 1, Pamplona 31008, Spain.

F Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology, University of Hohenheim, Ottilie-Zeller-Weg 3, Stuttgart 70599, Germany.

* Correspondence to: guillaume.tcherkez@anu.edu.au

Handling Editor: Ravinder Kumar

Functional Plant Biology 51, FP23255 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23255
Submitted: 26 October 2023  Accepted: 7 February 2024  Published: 23 February 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

While the effect of CO2 enrichment on wheat (Triticum spp.) photosynthesis, nitrogen content or yield has been well-studied, the impact of elevated CO2 on metabolic pathways in organs other than leaves is poorly documented. In particular, glumes and awns, which may refix CO2 respired by developing grains and be naturally exposed to higher-than-ambient CO2 mole fraction, could show specific responses to elevated CO2. Here, we took advantage of a free-air CO2 enrichment experiment and performed multilevel analyses, including metabolomics, ionomics, proteomics, major hormones and isotopes in Triticum durum. While in leaves, elevated CO2 tended to accelerate amino acid metabolism with many significantly affected metabolites, the effect on glumes and awns metabolites was modest. There was a lower content in compounds of the polyamine pathway (along with uracile and allantoin) under elevated CO2, suggesting a change in secondary N metabolism. Also, cytokinin metabolism appeared to be significantly affected under elevated CO2. Despite this, elevated CO2 did not affect the final composition of awn and glume organic matter, with the same content in carbon, nitrogen and other elements. We conclude that elevated CO2 mostly impacts on leaf metabolism but has little effect in awns and glumes, including their composition at maturity.

Keywords: awn, carbon isotopes, elevated CO2, glume, metabolism, nutrients, omics, wheat.

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