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THE BIOSTIMULANT EFFECT OF PROTEIN HYDROLYSATES FROM DIFFERENT ORIGIN: A COMBINED PHENOMICS AND METABOLOMICS APPROACH Valentina Buffagni, Begona Miras Moreno, Youry Pii, Youssef Rouphael, Klàra Panzarova, Giuseppe Colla Luigi Lucini
The biostimulant effect of protein hydrolysates from different origin: a combined phenomics and metabolomics approach
Valentina Buffagni 1 , Begona Miras-Moreno 1 , Youry Pii 2 , Youssef Rouphael 3 , Klàra Panzarova 4 , Giuseppe Colla 5 and Luigi Lucini 1
1 Department for sustainable food process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy 2 Facoltà di Scienze e Tecnologie, Libera Università di Bolzano, Italia 3 Department of agriculture, Università degli studi Federico II di Napoli, Italia 4 Photon System Institute, Olomouc, Czech Republic 5 Department DAFNE, Università della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italia
The definition of biostimulant properties is a critical process requiring an accurate testing of the effects on the morpho-physiological traits of plants and a deep understanding of the mechanism of action. A screening approach combining high-throughput phenotyping has been applied to protein hydrolysates (PHs) from different botanical origin. Seven PHs (A-G, I) derived from enzymatic hydrolysis of different plant species were foliarly sprayed at different dosages, from 0.001 to 0.1% PH. Arabidopsis thaliana grown under different salt stress conditions was used as a model. For phenotyping, high-throughput non-invasive imaging technologies integrating photosynthetic performance, growth analysis, and color index analysis were used. The digital biomass of the plants sprayed with PH was in general increased, while comparatively lower effects could be noticed for kinetic chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. The best performing PH were then subjected to MS-based untargeted metabolomics analysis to characterize the functional mechanisms underlying the biostimulant effects. The PHs modulated the multi-layer regulation process involving phytohormones and secondary metabolism processes, including redox balance mechanisms. The metabolic reprogramming following the application of the tested biostimulants allowed unraveling a diversity of plant biochemical processes.
Nonetheless, our experimental results highlight the potential of a combined highthroughput phenotyping and metabolomics approach to sccreen new substances with biostimulant properties and to provide a morpho-physiological and metabolomic gateway to the mechanisms related to PHs activity.
