How Does Metabolism Affect Growth in Plants?

Plant growth depends on the metabolism to provide both the energy and the precursors required for biomass production and the maintenance of cellular integrity. The relationship between metabolism and growth in plants has been understudied and is likely to be complex and non-linear. This predicted complexity is due to the necessity for partitioning between growth and maintenance of existing biomass, and the metabolic flexibility of plants which allows them to adapt to a variable environment without being motile.

In this study, steady-state metabolic flux analysis (MFA) will be utilised to examine the relationship between growth and metabolism. Two stress factors have been selected to cause changes in metabolism and growth rate; growing plants at sub-optimal temperatures and at sub-optimal concentrations of respiratory substrate. The flux maps produced by MFA will be used to estimate the carbon conversion efficiency and then deduce the energy, and reducing power costs of maintaining existing biomass in different conditions.

The results from this project could contribute to a new perspective on our understanding of plant growth as well as inform future engineering of plants. Additionally, research into the details of plant metabolic response to sub-optimal temperatures and respiratory substrate concentrations could provide insight into how plants will perform during climate change and could inform further research into plant metabolic response to stresses.

The project will address the BBSRC priority areas: Data driven biology, sustainably enhancing food production, systems approaches to the biosciences.