Cell Wall Profiling of the Resurrection Plants Craterostigma plantagineum and Lindernia brevidens and Their Desiccation-Sensitive Relative, Lindernia subracemosa

TL;DR

This study compares the cell walls of desiccation-tolerant and desiccation-sensitive plants to understand how they respond to drying.

Contribution

The study reveals subtle cell wall remodelling during desiccation in resurrection plants.

Findings

Cell wall compositions were similar across species despite desiccation tolerance differences.

Subtle changes in pectin, xyloglucan, and extension epitopes were observed.

Plants appear constitutively protected against desiccation rather than relying on major wall modifications.

Abstract

Vegetative desiccation tolerance has evolved within the genera Craterostigma and Lindernia. A centre of endemism and diversification for these plants appears to occur in ancient tropical montane rainforests of east Africa in Kenya and Tanzania. Lindernia subracemosa, a desiccation-sensitive relative of Craterostigma plantagineum, occurs in these rainforests and experiences adequate rainfall and thus does not require desiccation tolerance. However, sharing this inselberg habitat, another species, Lindernia brevidens, does retain vegetative desiccation tolerance and is also related to the resurrection plant C. plantagineum found in South Africa. Leaf material was collected from all three species at different stages of hydration: fully hydrated (ca. 90% relative water content), half-dry (ca. 45% relative water content) and fully desiccated (ca. 5% relative water content). Cell wall monosaccharide datasets were collected from all three species. Comprehensive microarray polymer profiling (CoMPP) was performed using ca. 27 plant cell-wall-specific antibodies and carbohydrate-binding module probes. Some differences in pectin, xyloglucan and extension epitopes were observed between the selected species. Overall, cell wall compositions were similar, suggesting that wall modifications in response to vegetative desiccation involve subtle cell wall remodelling that is not reflected by the compositional analysis and that the plants and their walls are constitutively protected against desiccation.

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