Abstract
Abstract Enhancing crop yields is a major challenge because of an increasing human population, climate change, and reduction in arable land. Here, we demonstrate that long-lasting growth enhancement and increased stress tolerance occur by pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light. Plants treated this way had longer primary roots, more and longer lateral roots, and larger aerial tissue and were more tolerant to high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stress. We attributed the increase in plant growth and stress tolerance to ethylene-induced photosynthetic-derived sugars because ethylene pretreatment caused a 23% increase in carbon assimilation and increased the levels of glucose (266%), sucrose/trehalose (446%), and starch (87%). Metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses several days posttreatment showed a significant increase in metabolic processes and gene transcripts implicated in cell division, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolism. Because of this large effect on metabolism, we term this “ethylene-mediated metabolic priming.” Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutants prevented the growth enhancement, but this was partially rescued by exogenous sucrose, implicating sugars in this growth phenomenon. Additionally, ethylene pretreatment increased the levels of CINV1 and CINV2 encoding invertases that hydrolyze sucrose, and cinv1;cinv2 mutants did not respond to ethylene pretreatment with increased growth indicating increased sucrose breakdown is critical for this trait. A model is proposed where ethylene-mediated metabolic priming causes long-term increases in photosynthesis and carbohydrate utilization to increase growth. These responses may be part of the natural development of seedlings as they navigate through the soil to emerge into light.
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Claims 16
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene-pretreated Arabidopsis seedlings had longer primary roots.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis
Arabidopsise0 - Treatment
- pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylenee0
- Outcome
- primary rootse1
- Direction
- longere1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e1“Plants treated this way had longer primary roots, more and longer lateral roots, and larger aerial tissue and were more tolerant to high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene-pretreated Arabidopsis seedlings had more and longer lateral roots.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylenee0
- Outcome
- lateral rootse1
- Direction
- more and longere1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e1“Plants treated this way had longer primary roots, more and longer lateral roots, and larger aerial tissue and were more tolerant to high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene-pretreated Arabidopsis seedlings had larger aerial tissue.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylenee0
- Outcome
- aerial tissuee1
- Direction
- largere1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e1“Plants treated this way had longer primary roots, more and longer lateral roots, and larger aerial tissue and were more tolerant to high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene-pretreated Arabidopsis seedlings were more tolerant to high temperature, salt and recovery from hypoxia stress.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylenee0
- Outcome
- tolerante1
- Direction
- more tolerante1
- Qualifier
- high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stresse1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e1“Plants treated this way had longer primary roots, more and longer lateral roots, and larger aerial tissue and were more tolerant to high temperature, salt, and recovery from hypoxia stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment caused a 23% increase in carbon assimilation.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylene pretreatmente2
- Outcome
- carbon assimilatione2
- Direction
- increasee2
- Value
- 23%e2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e2“ethylene pretreatment caused a 23% increase in carbon assimilation”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment increased glucose levels by 266%.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylenee0
- Outcome
- levels of glucosee3
- Direction
- increasede3
- Value
- 266%e3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e3“increased the levels of glucose (266%), sucrose/trehalose (446%), and starch (87%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment increased sucrose/trehalose by 446%.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylenee0
- Outcome
- sucrose/trehalosee3
- Direction
- increasede3
- Value
- 446%e3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e3“increased the levels of glucose (266%), sucrose/trehalose (446%), and starch (87%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment increased starch by 87%.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e3“increased the levels of glucose (266%), sucrose/trehalose (446%), and starch (87%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment significantly increased metabolic processes several days after treatment.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylenee0
- Outcome
- metabolic processese4
- Direction
- significant increasee4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e4“Metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses several days posttreatment showed a significant increase in metabolic processes and gene transcripts implicated in cell division, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolism”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment significantly increased gene transcripts implicated in cell division, photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylenee0
- Outcome
- gene transcriptse4
- Direction
- significant increasee4
- Qualifier
- implicated in cell division, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolisme4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e4“Metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses several days posttreatment showed a significant increase in metabolic processes and gene transcripts implicated in cell division, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolism”
Claim · model-written summary
Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutants prevented the growth enhancement.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutantse5
- Outcome
- growth enhancemente5
- Direction
- preventede5
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e5“Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutants prevented the growth enhancement, but this was partially rescued by exogenous sucrose, implicating sugars in this growth phenomenon”
Claim · model-written summary
Exogenous sucrose partially rescued the growth enhancement prevented by reduced photosynthesis.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- exogenous sucrosee5
- Compound
- sucrosee5
- Outcome
- growth enhancemente5
- Direction
- partially rescuede5
- Comparator
- Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutantse5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e5“Reducing photosynthesis with inhibitors or mutants prevented the growth enhancement, but this was partially rescued by exogenous sucrose, implicating sugars in this growth phenomenon”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene pretreatment increased the levels of CINV1 and CINV2 invertases.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- ethylene pretreatmente6
- Gene
- CINV1 and CINV2e6
- Outcome
- levels of CINV1 and CINV2e6
- Direction
- increasede6
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e6“ethylene pretreatment increased the levels of CINV1 and CINV2 encoding invertases that hydrolyze sucrose”
Claim · model-written summary
cinv1;cinv2 mutants did not respond to ethylene pretreatment with increased growth.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Material
- cinv1;cinv2 mutantse7
- Treatment
- ethylene pretreatmente7
- Outcome
- growthe7
- Direction
- did not responde7
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e7“cinv1;cinv2 mutants did not respond to ethylene pretreatment with increased growth indicating increased sucrose breakdown is critical for this trait”
Claim · model-written summary
Increased sucrose breakdown is critical for the ethylene-induced growth trait.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Outcome
- traite7
- Qualifier
- increased sucrose breakdown is critical for this traite7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e7“cinv1;cinv2 mutants did not respond to ethylene pretreatment with increased growth indicating increased sucrose breakdown is critical for this trait”
Claim · model-written summary
A model proposes that ethylene-mediated metabolic priming causes long-term increases in photosynthesis and carbohydrate utilization to increase growth.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Outcome
- long-term increases in photosynthesise1
- Qualifier
- ethylene-mediated metabolic priminge1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“pretreatment of dark grown Arabidopsis seedlings with ethylene before transitioning into light”
e1“A model is proposed where ethylene-mediated metabolic priming causes long-term increases in photosynthesis and carbohydrate utilization to increase growth”
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See all 21 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.