Lysine biosynthesis impairment shapes heat-stress acclimation through metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming in Arabidopsis thaliana
- 1Universidade Federal de Vicosa
Abstract
Global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of high-temperature episodes, limiting plant productivity. However, the molecular mechanisms integrating primary metabolism with the heat stress response remains poorly understood. Here, we show that lysine biosynthesis contributes to the coordination of physiological, metabolic and transcriptional responses to heat stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. We compared wild-type, the lysine-biosynthesis mutant dapat, and the salicylic acid (SA)-biosynthesis and signaling mutants sid2-1 and npr1-3 under prolonged warming (6C above control for 7 days) and heat shock (38C for 6 h), followed by recovery. We assessed growth, gas exchange, photosynthetic performance, free SA, salicylic acid glucoside (SAG), salicylic acid glucose ester (SGE), and total SA content, primary metabolite profiles, heat-stress-responsive gene expression and transcriptome-wide changes by RNA sequencing. Before heat stress, dapat mutant presented a distinct metabolic state, marked by amino-acid accumulation, altered organic-acid profiles, reduced soluble sugars and elevated endogenous SA. This metabolic configuration persisted during prolonged warming, whereas WT and SA-pathway mutants underwent more dynamic reprogramming. Heat shock, by contrast, elicited a more convergent response across genotypes. Despite reduced basal PSII efficiency, dapat maintained photosynthetic performance during prolonged warming and recovered. Its transcriptional response, however, differed from that of WT and SA-pathway mutants: selected heat-responsive genes were constitutively or more strongly expressed, whereas some canonical heat-stress regulators showed weaker induction after heat shock. RNA-seq further revealed a largely conserved core heat-shock response but genotype-dependent regulation of defense, hormone and amino-acid-metabolism programs, particularly during recovery. Together, these findings indicate that impaired DAPAT activity establishes a metabolically primed but energetically constrained state that reshapes gas exchange, photosynthetic acclimation and heat-responsive transcription. Lysine homeostasis therefore emerges as a regulatory node linking primary metabolism and SA accumulation with SA-dependent and SA-independent components of heat-stress acclimation.
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BibTeX
@misc{gouveia2026lysine,
title = {{Lysine biosynthesis impairment shapes heat-stress acclimation through metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming in Arabidopsis thaliana}},
author = {D. G. Gouveia and P. Westhoff and W. E. B. Barrios and M. Perrar and S. Flachbart and A. O. Martins and P. B. dos Reis and A. Nunes-Nesi and J. Zeier and A. P. M. Weber and W. L. Araujo},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.07.749967},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.07.749967v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Lysine biosynthesis impairment shapes heat-stress acclimation through metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming in Arabidopsis thaliana
AU - D. G. Gouveia
AU - P. Westhoff
AU - W. E. B. Barrios
AU - M. Perrar
AU - S. Flachbart
AU - A. O. Martins
AU - P. B. dos Reis
AU - A. Nunes-Nesi
AU - J. Zeier
AU - A. P. M. Weber
AU - W. L. Araujo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/07
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.07.749967
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.07.749967v1
AB - Global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of high-temperature episodes, limiting plant productivity. However, the molecular mechanisms integrating primary metabolism with the heat stress response remains poorly understood. Here, we show that lysine biosynthesis contributes to the coordination of physiological, metabolic and transcriptional responses to heat stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. We compared wild-type, the lysine-biosynthesis mutant dapat, and the salicylic acid (SA)-biosynthesis and signaling mutants sid2-1 and npr1-3 under prolonged warming (6C above control for 7 days) and heat shock (38C for 6 h), followed by recovery. We assessed growth, gas exchange, photosynthetic performance, free SA, salicylic acid glucoside (SAG), salicylic acid glucose ester (SGE), and total SA content, primary metabolite profiles, heat-stress-responsive gene expression and transcriptome-wide changes by RNA sequencing. Before heat stress, dapat mutant presented a distinct metabolic state, marked by amino-acid accumulation, altered organic-acid profiles, reduced soluble sugars and elevated endogenous SA. This metabolic configuration persisted during prolonged warming, whereas WT and SA-pathway mutants underwent more dynamic reprogramming. Heat shock, by contrast, elicited a more convergent response across genotypes. Despite reduced basal PSII efficiency, dapat maintained photosynthetic performance during prolonged warming and recovered. Its transcriptional response, however, differed from that of WT and SA-pathway mutants: selected heat-responsive genes were constitutively or more strongly expressed, whereas some canonical heat-stress regulators showed weaker induction after heat shock. RNA-seq further revealed a largely conserved core heat-shock response but genotype-dependent regulation of defense, hormone and amino-acid-metabolism programs, particularly during recovery. Together, these findings indicate that impaired DAPAT activity establishes a metabolically primed but energetically constrained state that reshapes gas exchange, photosynthetic acclimation and heat-responsive transcription. Lysine homeostasis therefore emerges as a regulatory node linking primary metabolism and SA accumulation with SA-dependent and SA-independent components of heat-stress acclimation.
ER -