Research Article Open Access

Effect of Organic Osmolytes and ABA Accumulated in Twelve Dominant Desert Plants of the Tengger Desert, China

Abstract

Plants can synthesize and accumulate various compatible osmolytes in the cytosol to lower the osmotic potential to sustain water absorption from the soil. The present study aims to evaluate the ability of osmotic homeostasis of 12 desert plants with content of free proline, glycine betaine, treholase, total soluble sugar, and total flavones in experiments study site. The experiments results showed that levels of osmolytes were accumulated at very high levels: about 0.3-1.3 mg/g DW for proline, 20-130 mg/g DW for trehalose content and glycine betaine, 1-18 mg/g DW for total flavones content in the 12 desert plants. Fuzzy Cluster Analysis indicates that the 12 plant species can be divided into five types through plant adaptation mechanism of osmotic homeostasis. The types are as follows: Type 1-five desert plants with high content of glycine betaine; Type 2-four desert plants with high content of trehalose and flavones; Type 3-two desert plants with high content of proline and trehalose; Type 4-one desert plant with high ABA content; and Type 5-one desert plant with higher level of proline, treholase, and betaine. In summary, this work illustrated that proline, glycine betaine, treholase, flavone and ABA are the major osmosis-regulating substances of desert plant which facilitate plants to adapt harsh environment in arid and semi-arid area.

Xin Zhao, Huijuan Tan and Guoxiong Chen

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