AUTHOR=Jian Shao-Fen , Huang Xue-Jing , Yang Xiao-Nan , Zhong Chu , Miao Jian-Hua 

TITLE=Sulfur Regulates the Trade-Off Between Growth and Andrographolide Accumulation via Nitrogen Metabolism in Andrographis paniculata

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.687954

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.687954

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) are essential mineral nutrients for plant growth and metabolism. Here, we investigated their interaction on plant growth and andrographolide accumulation in a medicinal plant Andrographis paniculata grown at different N (4 mmol·L-1 and 8 mmol·L-1) and S levels (0.1 mmol·L-1 and 2.4 mmol·L-1). We found that increasing S application rate enhanced accumulation of andrographolide compounds (AGs) in A. paniculata. Simultaneously, salicylic acid (SA) and gibberellic acid 4 (GA4) were increased but trehalose/trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre/Tre6P) were decreased by high S, suggesting that they were involved in S-mediated accumulation of AGs. However, S affected plant growth differentially at different N levels. Metabolite analysis revealed that high S induced increases of TCA cycle and photorespiration at low N condition, which promoted N assimilation and S metabolism and simultaneously increased carbohydrate consumption and inhibited plant growth. In contrast, high S reduced N and S concentrations in plants and promoted plant growth at high N conditions. Taken together, our results indicated that increasing S application rate is an effective strategy to improve AGs accumulation in A. paniculata. Nevertheless, the interaction of N and S affected the trade-off between plant growth and AGs accumulation, in which N metabolism plays a key role.