31P-NMR Metabolomics Revealed Species-Specific Use of Phosphorous in Trees of a French Guiana Rainforest

• Published in: Molecules
• Main Authors: Gargallo-Garriga, Albert, Sardans, Jordi, Llusià, Joan, Peguero, Guille, Asensio, Dolores, Ogaya, Romà, Urbina, Ifigenia, Langenhove, Leandro Van, Verryckt, Lore, Courtois, Elodie, Stahl, Clément, Grau, Oriol, Urban, Otmar, Janssens, Ivan, Nolis, Pau, Pérez-Trujillo, Miriam, Parella, Teodor, Peñuelas, Josep
• Other Authors: Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: P-31-NMR metabolic profiling; Iceland; Tropical lowland; P-containing compounds; Species-specific P-use niches; [SDE]Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03193429; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25173960

International audience Productivity of tropical lowland moist forests is often limited by availability and functional allocation of phosphorus (P) that drives competition among tree species and becomes a key factor in determining forestall community diversity. We used non-target(31)P-NMR metabolic profiling to study the foliar P-metabolism of trees of a French Guiana rainforest. The objective was to test the hypotheses that P-use is species-specific, and that species diversity relates to species P-use and concentrations of P-containing compounds, including inorganic phosphates, orthophosphate monoesters and diesters, phosphonates and organic polyphosphates. We found that tree species explained the 59% of variance in(31)P-NMR metabolite profiling of leaves. A principal component analysis showed that tree species were separated along PC 1 and PC 2 of detected P-containing compounds, which represented a continuum going from high concentrations of metabolites related to non-active P and P-storage, low total P concentrations and high N:P ratios, to high concentrations of P-containing metabolites related to energy and anabolic metabolism, high total P concentrations and low N:P ratios. These results highlight the species-specific use of P and the existence of species-specific P-use niches that are driven by the distinct species-specific position in a continuum in the P-allocation from P-storage compounds to P-containing molecules related to energy and anabolic metabolism.