Sensitivity of Chinese Hickory to Soil Acidification and Important Plant Metabolites in Response to Soil Acidification.

This study explored the effects of soil acidification on degradation of Chinese hickory forest under field experimental conditions. Responses of plant nutrient absorption and non-targeted metabolomics based on LC-MS were analyzed to understand the mechanisms of Chinese hickory plant to acid resistance and susceptibility. In this field experiment, Chinese hickory plants were treated with CK (T1, control), nitrogen application (urea) (T2), and aluminum application (aluminum sulfate) (T3). Results showed that Al is the key toxic factor of acidification of soils planted with Chinese hickory. T2 and T3 treatments significantly inhibited absorption of nutrient elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, B and Zn) by Chinese hickory (except N in T2). The metabolomics data analysis showed that there were differences in plant metabolites between the experimental group (T2 and T3) and the control (T1), including p-coumaroyl quinic acid, chlorogenic acid, catechin, (+) germacrene A, myricetin 3-galactoside, and neoglucobrassicin. These metabolites may be the main regulators of Chinese hickory to soil acid stress or related to the effect of soil acidification on Chinese hickory resistance. KEGG metabolic pathway enrichment analysis showed that these differential metabolites were mainly enriched in four metabolic pathways: Flavonoid biosynthesis, Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, Tyrosine metabolism, Stilbenoid, diarylheptanoid, and gingerol biosynthesis. This study provides a reference for metabolomics studies in Chinese hickory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]