Impact of Plant Nutrition on Primary and Secondary Metabolites
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 22288
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant hormones; plant nutrition; responses of primary and secondary plant metabolism to plant nutrition; orphan crops; analytical methods including HPLC; UHPLC; GC; mass spectrometry; optical spectroscopy; electrophoresis and quantitative PCR; separation and analysis of chiral molecules; enzyme assays; inhibitors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: nutrient (use) efficiency (particularly P, S, N) in the plant–soil system; effectiveness of mineral and organic fertilizers as a source for the plant P, S and N demand; plant nutritional quality as affected by mineral nutrition; nutrient turnover in the environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plant nutrition has a substantial impact on plant growth and development. Both deficiency and oversupply of nutrients can cause severe phenotypic reactions. Plant nutrition has also a significant impact on metabolism and, consequently, the chemical composition of plants. In primary metabolism, several nutrients, particularly nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous, are incorporated into small molecules. Consequently, the levels of these metabolites may strongly depend on the nutrient supply. For instance, the concentrations of free small hydrophobic amino acids, particularly glutamine, glutamate, and serine, are sensitive to the nitrogen supply. Their levels may be more than 100 times higher under conditions of good nitrogen supply than under nitrogen starvation. The availability of amino acids has, of course, a major impact on the biosynthesis of compounds derived from them, for instance proteins or chlorophyll synthesis, which is inhibited during nitrogen starvation, leading to the typical yellowish appearance of leaves of plants grown under such conditions. Similarly, the levels of the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine depend on the sulfur supply and, therefore, the contents of secondary metabolites containing sulfur may also be influenced strongly. For instance, the concentration of glucosinolates, secondary metabolites involved in the defense against feeding insects, is well correlated with the sulfur supply. However, the concentration of a particular nutrient may also impact the levels of compounds that do not contain that element. For instance, huge amounts of the polyamine putrescine accumulate in many plant species under conditions of potassium starvation. This can be explained as a compensatory mechanism to maintain the ion balance, since the strongly positively charged polyamine can, in part, replace potassium. Another example is the impact of the nitrogen supply on the composition of peppermint oil, which consists mainly of menthol under conditions of low nitrogen availability while menthon is predominant under a nitrogen surplus.
Detailed knowledge of such processes is of high importance, since they may allow metabolism to be directed in a desired direction and can substantially impact product quality. However, while the impact of primary metabolites on plant nutrition has been well studied, little data are available regarding their contribution to the modulation of secondary metabolism. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms regulating these processes are still ill-defined.
This Special Issue intends to offer a forum to enhance the understanding of the impact of nutrients on primary and particularly secondary metabolites. Original manuscripts and review articles addressing the aforementioned or similar topics are highly welcome. For reviews, communication of a brief proposal is recommended prior to manuscript preparation to avoid overlapping with other submissions.
Dr. Wilfried Rozhon
Dr. Sabine von Tucher
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- nitrogen
- phosphorous
- sulfur
- potassium
- micro nutrients
- primary metabolites
- secondary metabolites
- amino acids
- product quality
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