Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Drought Effects on Proanthocyanidins in Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) Are Dependent on the Plant's Ontogenetic Stage
List of Authors: Carsten Malisch, Juha-Pekka Salminen, Roland Kölliker, Marica Therese Engström, Daniel Suter, Bruno Studer, Andreas Lüscher
Publisher: ACS
Publication year: 2016
Journal: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Journal acronym: JAFC
Volume number: 64
Issue number: 49
Start page: 9307
End page: 9316
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0021-8561
eISSN: 1520-5118
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b02342
Sainfoin
(Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) is a forage legume, which improves animal
health and the environmental impact of livestock farming due to its
proanthocyanidin content. To identify the impact of drought on
acetone/water extractable proanthocyanidin (PA) concentration and
composition in the generative and vegetative stage, a rain exclosure
experiment was established. Leaves of 120 plants from five different
sainfoin accessions were sampled repeatedly and analyzed by
UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The results showed distinct differences in response to
drought between vegetative and generative plants. While vegetative
plants showed a strong response to drought in growth (-56%) and leaf PA
concentration (+46%), generative plants showed no response in growth
(-2%) or PA concentration (-9%). The PA composition was stable across
environments. The five accessions varied in PA concentrations and
composition but showed the same pattern of response to the experimental
treatments. These results show that the ontogenetic stage at which
drought occurs significantly affects the plant’s response.