Facing combined abiotic stresses: a wide natural diversity of responses in arabidopsis

While we are beginning to understand the mechanisms of plant responses to environmental constraints, this often involves studying individual stresses without necessarily addressing the major interactions that occur in nature or in the field, where stresses combine in a complex dynamic. For example, it is relevant to consider water availability when studying a nutritional stress. 

In a study published in the journal 'The Plant Cell,' several scientists from different teams* at the Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin – Plant Sciences (IJPB) collaborated on a comprehensive experimental plan utilizing the platforms** of the IJPB's Plant Observatory and supported by the POPS transcriptomics platform at IPS2. The results of these experiments revealed the extent of natural diversity existing in the species Arabidopsis thaliana in response to water stress and nitrogen deficiency, both individually and combined. This multi-omic characterization work (phenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics) shows how difficult it is to define a 'universal response' in this species. The main interaction between the stresses resulted in mitigating the syndrome associated with nitrogen stress when combined with moderate water stress. Many other water x nitrogen interactions are revealed, generally specific to each Arabidopsis accession (wild line) studied. A multi-omic analysis finally identified the groups of traits (phenotypes/transcripts/metabolites) that best discriminate the stress responses of different accessions, opening interesting avenues, particularly when involving functionally unknown transcripts. The combination of stresses generates unpredictable interactions based on individual stress responses. 

This work, which can be described as 'systems genetics,' opens the door to more targeted characterization - such as through quantitative genetics or modeling approaches—focusing on phenotypic and molecular traits identified as either the most relevant for understanding the water x nitrogen interaction or the most variable from one accession to another.

* IJPB teams
> "Variation and Abiotic Stress Tolerance " VAST
> "Senescence, Autophagy, Nutrient Recycling and Nitrogen Use Efficiency" SATURNE 
> "Nitrogen Use, transport and signaling"  NUTS

** IJPB platforms
> "The Plant Observatory - Phenoscope" PO-Pheno
> "The Plant Observatory - Chemistry/Metabolism" PO-Chem


Research developed at the Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin for Plant Sciences.