The understanding of acclimation strategies to low temperature and water availability is decisive to ensure coffee crop sustainability, since these environmental conditions determine the suitability ...of cultivation areas. In this context, the impacts of single and combined exposure to drought and cold were evaluated in three genotypes of the two major cropped species, Coffea arabica cv. Icatu, Coffea canephora cv. Apoatã, and the hybrid Obatã. Crucial traits of plant resilience to environmental stresses have been examined: photosynthesis, lipoperoxidation and the antioxidant response. Drought and/or cold promoted leaf dehydration, which was accompanied by stomatal and mesophyll limitations that impaired leaf C-assimilation in all genotypes. However, Icatu showed a lower impact upon stress exposure and a faster and complete photosynthetic recovery. Although lipoperoxidation was increased by drought (Icatu) and cold (all genotypes), it was greatly reduced by stress interaction, especially in Icatu. In fact, although the antioxidative system was reinforced under single drought and cold exposure (e.g., activity of enzymes as Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, APX, glutathione reductase and catalase, CAT), the stronger increases were observed upon the simultaneous exposure to both stresses, which was accompanied with a transcriptional response of some genes, namely related to APX. Complementary, non-enzyme antioxidant molecules were promoted mostly by cold and the stress interaction, including α-tocopherol (in C. arabica plants), ascorbate (ASC), zeaxanthin, and phenolic compounds (all genotypes). In general, drought promoted antioxidant enzymes activity, whereas cold enhanced the synthesis of both enzyme and non-enzyme antioxidants, the latter likely related to a higher need of antioxidative capability when enzyme reactions were probably quite repressed by low temperature. Icatu showed the wider antioxidative capability, with the triggering of all studied antioxidative molecules by drought (except CAT), cold, and, particularly, stress interaction (except ASC), revealing a clear stress cross-tolerance. This justified the lower impacts on membrane lipoperoxidation and photosynthetic capacity under stress interaction conditions, related to a better ROS control. These findings are also relevant to coffee water management, showing that watering in the cold season should be largely avoided.
Abstract
Growing water restrictions associated with climate changes constitute daunting challenges to crop performance. This study unveils the impacts of moderate (MWD) or severe (SWD) water deficit, ...and their interaction with air CO2, on the photosynthetic apparatus of Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner cv. Conilon Clone 153 (CL153) and Coffea arabica L. cv. Icatu. Seven year-old potted plants grown under 380 (aCO2) or 700 μl l −1 (eCO2) CO2 gradually reached predawn water potentials between −1.6 and −2.1 MPa (MWD), and below −3.5 MPa (SWD). Under drought, stomata closure was chiefly related to abscisic acid (ABA) rise. Increasing drought severity progressively affected gas exchange and fluorescence parameters in both genotypes, with non-stomatal limitations becoming gradually dominating, especially regarding the photochemical and biochemical components of CL153 SWD plants. In contrast, Icatu plants were highly tolerant to SWD, with minor, if any, negative impacts on the potential photosynthetic functioning and components (e.g., Amax, Fv/Fm, electron carriers, photosystems (PSs) and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (RuBisCO) activities). Besides, drought-stressed Icatu plants displayed increased abundance of a large set of proteins associated with the photosynthetic apparatus (PSs, light-harvesting complexes, cyclic electron flow, RuBisCO activase) regardless of CO2. Single eCO2 did not promote stomatal and photosynthetic down-regulation in both genotypes. Instead, eCO2 increased photosynthetic performance, moderately reinforced photochemical (PSs activity, electron carriers) and biochemical (RuBisCO, ribulose-5-phosphate kinase) components, whereas photoprotective mechanisms and protein abundance remained mostly unaffected. In both genotypes, under MWD, eCO2 superimposition delayed stress severity and promoted photosynthetic functioning with lower energy dissipation and PSII impacts, whereas stomatal closure was decoupled from increases in ABA. In SWD plants, most impacts on the photosynthetic performance were reduced by eCO2, especially in the moderately drought affected CL153 genotype, although maintaining RuBisCO as the most sensitive component, deserving special breeder’s attention to improve coffee sustainability under future climate scenarios.
Climate changes, mostly related to high temperature, are predicted to have major negative impacts on coffee crop yield and bean quality. Recent studies revealed that elevated air CO
mitigates the ...impact of heat on leaf physiology. However, the extent of the interaction between elevated air CO
and heat on coffee bean quality was never addressed. In this study, the single and combined impacts of enhanced CO
and temperature in beans of
cv. Icatu were evaluated. Plants were grown at 380 or 700 μL CO
L
air, and then submitted to a gradual temperature rise from 25°C up to 40°C during ca. 4 months. Fruits were harvested at 25°C, and in the ranges of 30-35 or 36-40°C, and bean physical and chemical attributes with potential implications on quality were then examined. These included: color, phenolic content, soluble solids, chlorogenic, caffeic and
-coumaric acids, caffeine, trigonelline, lipids, and minerals. Most of these parameters were mainly affected by temperature (although without a strong negative impact on bean quality), and only marginally, if at all, by elevated CO
. However, the CO
vs. temperature interaction strongly attenuated some of the negative impacts promoted by heat (e.g., total chlorogenic acids), thus maintaining the bean characteristics closer to those obtained under adequate temperature conditions (e.g., soluble solids, caffeic and
-coumaric acids, trigonelline, chroma, Hue angle, and color index), and increasing desirable features (acidity). Fatty acid and mineral pools remained quite stable, with only few modifications due to elevated air CO
(e.g., phosphorous) and/or heat. In conclusion, exposure to high temperature in the last stages of fruit maturation did not strongly depreciate bean quality, under the conditions of unrestricted water supply and moderate irradiance. Furthermore, the superimposition of elevated air CO
contributed to preserve bean quality by modifying and mitigating the heat impact on physical and chemical traits of coffee beans, which is clearly relevant in a context of predicted climate change and global warming scenarios.
Coffee is one of the world's most traded agricultural products. Modeling studies have predicted that climate change will have a strong impact on the suitability of current cultivation areas, but ...these studies have not anticipated possible mitigating effects of the elevated atmospheric CO2 because no information exists for the coffee plant. Potted plants from two genotypes of Coffea arabica and one of C. canephora were grown under controlled conditions of irradiance (800 μmol m(-2) s(-1)), RH (75%) and 380 or 700 μL CO2 L(-1) for 1 year, without water, nutrient or root development restrictions. In all genotypes, the high CO2 treatment promoted opposite trends for stomatal density and size, which decreased and increased, respectively. Regardless of the genotype or the growth CO2, the net rate of CO2 assimilation increased (34-49%) when measured at 700 than at 380 μL CO2 L(-1). This result, together with the almost unchanged stomatal conductance, led to an instantaneous water use efficiency increase. The results also showed a reinforcement of photosynthetic (and respiratory) components, namely thylakoid electron transport and the activities of RuBisCo, ribulose 5-phosphate kinase, malate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase, what may have contributed to the enhancements in the maximum rates of electron transport, carboxylation and photosynthetic capacity under elevated CO2, although these responses were genotype dependent. The photosystem II efficiency, energy driven to photochemical events, non-structural carbohydrates, photosynthetic pigment and membrane permeability did not respond to CO2 supply. Some alterations in total fatty acid content and the unsaturation level of the chloroplast membranes were noted but, apparently, did not affect photosynthetic functioning. Despite some differences among the genotypes, no clear species-dependent responses to elevated CO2 were observed. Overall, as no apparent sign of photosynthetic down-regulation was found, our data suggest that Coffea spp. plants may successfully cope with high CO2 under the present experimental conditions.
Increasing exposure to unfavorable temperatures and water deficit imposes major constraints on most crops worldwide. Despite several studies regarding coffee responses to abiotic stresses, ...transcriptome modulation due to simultaneous stresses remains poorly understood. This study unravels transcriptomic responses under the combined action of drought and temperature in leaves from the two most traded species: Coffea canephora cv. Conilon Clone 153 (CL153) and C. arabica cv. Icatu. Substantial transcriptomic changes were found, especially in response to the combination of stresses that cannot be explained by an additive effect. A large number of genes were involved in stress responses, with photosynthesis and other physiologically related genes usually being negatively affected. In both genotypes, genes encoding for protective proteins, such as dehydrins and heat shock proteins, were positively regulated. Transcription factors (TFs), including MADS-box genes, were down-regulated, although responses were genotype-dependent. In contrast to Icatu, only a few drought- and heat-responsive DEGs were recorded in CL153, which also reacted more significantly in terms of the number of DEGs and enriched GO terms, suggesting a high ability to cope with stresses. This research provides novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying leaf Coffea responses to drought and heat, revealing their influence on gene expression.
Drought is a major constraint to plant growth and productivity worldwide and will aggravate as water availability becomes scarcer. Although elevated air CO2 might mitigate some of these effects in ...plants, the mechanisms underlying the involved responses are poorly understood in woody economically important crops such as Coffea. This study analyzed transcriptome changes in Coffea canephora cv. CL153 and C. arabica cv. Icatu exposed to moderate (MWD) or severe water deficits (SWD) and grown under ambient (aCO2) or elevated (eCO2) air CO2. We found that changes in expression levels and regulatory pathways were barely affected by MWD, while the SWD condition led to a down-regulation of most differentially expressed genes (DEGs). eCO2 attenuated the impacts of drought in the transcripts of both genotypes but mostly in Icatu, in agreement with physiological and metabolic studies. A predominance of protective and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging-related genes, directly or indirectly associated with ABA signaling pathways, was found in Coffea responses, including genes involved in water deprivation and desiccation, such as protein phosphatases in Icatu, and aspartic proteases and dehydrins in CL153, whose expression was validated by qRT-PCR. The existence of a complex post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism appears to occur in Coffea explaining some apparent discrepancies between transcriptomic, proteomic, and physiological data in these genotypes.
Understanding the effect of extreme temperatures and elevated air (CO2) is crucial for mitigating the impacts of the coffee industry. In this work, leaf transcriptomic changes were evaluated in the ...diploid C. canephora and its polyploid C. arabica, grown at 25 °C and at two supra-optimal temperatures (37 °C, 42 °C), under ambient (aCO2) or elevated air CO2 (eCO2). Both species expressed fewer genes as temperature rose, although a high number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed, especially at 42 °C. An enrichment analysis revealed that the two species reacted differently to the high temperatures but with an overall up-regulation of the photosynthetic machinery until 37 °C. Although eCO2 helped to release stress, 42 °C had a severe impact on both species. A total of 667 photosynthetic and biochemical related-DEGs were altered with high temperatures and eCO2, which may be used as key probe genes in future studies. This was mostly felt in C. arabica, where genes related to ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) activity, chlorophyll a-b binding, and the reaction centres of photosystems I and II were down-regulated, especially under 42°C, regardless of CO2. Transcriptomic changes showed that both species were strongly affected by the highest temperature, although they can endure higher temperatures (37 °C) than previously assumed.
Climate changes boosted the frequency and severity of drought and heat events, with aggravated when these stresses occur simultaneously, turning crucial to unveil the plant response mechanisms to ...such harsh conditions. Therefore, plant responses/resilience to single and combined exposure to severe water deficit (SWD) and heat were assessed in two cultivars of the main coffee-producing species:
cv. Icatu and
cv. Conilon Clone 153 (CL153). Well-watered plants (WW) were exposed to SWD under an adequate temperature of 25/20°C (day/night), and thereafter submitted to a gradual increase up to 42/30°C, and a 14-d recovery period (Rec14). Greater protective response was found to single SWD than to single 37/28°C and/or 42/30°C (except for HSP70) in both cultivars, but CL153-SWD plants showed the larger variations of leaf thermal imaging crop water stress index (CWSI, 85% rise at 37/28°C) and stomatal conductance index (I
, 66% decline at 25/20°C). Both cultivars revealed great resilience to SWD and/or 37/28°C, but a tolerance limit was surpassed at 42/30°C. Under stress combination, Icatu usually displayed lower impacts on membrane permeability, and PSII function, likely associated with various responses, usually mostly driven by drought (but often kept or even strengthened under SWD and 42/30°C). These included the photoprotective zeaxanthin and lutein, antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, Cu,Zn-SOD; ascorbate peroxidase, APX), HSP70, arabinose and mannitol (involving
sugar synthesis), contributing to constrain lipoperoxidation. Also, only Icatu showed a strong reinforcement of glutathione reductase activity under stress combination. In general, the activities of antioxidative enzymes declined at 42/30°C (except Cu,Zn-SOD in Icatu and CAT in CL153), but HSP70 and raffinose were maintained higher in Icatu, whereas mannitol and arabinose markedly increased in CL153. Overall, a great leaf plasticity was found, especially in Icatu that revealed greater responsiveness of coordinated protection under all experimental conditions, justifying low PI
and absence of lipoperoxidation increase at 42/30°C. Despite a clear recovery by Rec14, some aftereffects persisted especially in SWD plants (
., membranes), relevant in terms of repeated stress exposure and full plant recovery to stresses.
The tropical coffee crop has been predicted to be threatened by future climate changes and global warming. However, the real biological effects of such changes remain unknown. Therefore, this work ...aims to link the physiological and biochemical responses of photosynthesis to elevated air CO2 and temperature in cultivated genotypes of Coffea arabica L. (cv. Icatu and IPR108) and Coffea canephora cv. Conilon CL153. Plants were grown for ca. 10 months at 25/20 °C (day/night) and 380 or 700 μl CO2 l−1 and then subjected to temperature increase (0.5 °C day−1) to 42/34 °C. Leaf impacts related to stomatal traits, gas exchanges, C isotope composition, fluorescence parameters, thylakoid electron transport and enzyme activities were assessed at 25/20, 31/25, 37/30 and 42/34 °C. The results showed that (1) both species were remarkably heat tolerant up to 37/30 °C, but at 42/34 °C a threshold for irreversible nonstomatal deleterious effects was reached. Impairments were greater in C. arabica (especially in Icatu) and under normal CO2. Photosystems and thylakoid electron transport were shown to be quite heat tolerant, contrasting to the enzymes related to energy metabolism, including RuBisCO, which were the most sensitive components. (2) Significant stomatal trait modifications were promoted almost exclusively by temperature and were species dependent. Elevated CO2, (3) strongly mitigated the impact of temperature on both species, particularly at 42/34 °C, modifying the response to supra‐optimal temperatures, (4) promoted higher water‐use efficiency under moderately higher temperature (31/25 °C) and (5) did not provoke photosynthetic downregulation. Instead, enhancements in CO2 strengthened photosynthetic photochemical efficiency, energy use and biochemical functioning at all temperatures. Our novel findings demonstrate a relevant heat resilience of coffee species and that elevated CO2 remarkably mitigated the impact of heat on coffee physiology, therefore playing a key role in this crop sustainability under future climate change scenarios.
As atmospheric CO
continues to rise to unprecedented levels, understanding its impact on plants is imperative to improve crop performance and sustainability under future climate conditions. In this ...context, transcriptional changes promoted by elevated CO
(eCO
) were studied in genotypes from the two major traded coffee species: the allopolyploid
(Icatu) and its diploid parent,
(CL153). While Icatu expressed more genes than CL153, a higher number of differentially expressed genes were found in CL153 as a response to eCO
. Although many genes were found to be commonly expressed by the two genotypes under eCO
, unique genes and pathways differed between them, with CL153 showing more enriched GO terms and metabolic pathways than Icatu. Divergent functional categories and significantly enriched pathways were found in these genotypes, which altogether supports contrasting responses to eCO
. A considerable number of genes linked to coffee physiological and biochemical responses were found to be affected by eCO
with the significant upregulation of photosynthetic, antioxidant, and lipidic genes. This supports the absence of photosynthesis down-regulation and, therefore, the maintenance of increased photosynthetic potential promoted by eCO
in these coffee genotypes.
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