Comparison of Salt Tolerance in Soja Based on Metabolomics of Seedling Roots

Soybean is an important economic crop that is continually threatened by abiotic stresses, especially salt stress. Wild soybean is an important germplasm resource for the breeding of cultivated soybean. The root system plays a very important role in plant salt tolerance. To explore the salt tolerance-related mechanisms among Soja, we have demonstrated the seedling roots’ growth and metabolomics in wild soybean, semi-wild soybean and cultivated soybean under two types of salt stress by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We characterized 47 kinds of differential metabolites under neutral salt stress, and isoleucine, serine, l-allothreonine, glutamic acid, phenylalanine, asparagines, aspartic acid, pentadecanoic acid, lignoceric acid, oleic acid, galactose, tagatose, d-arabitol, dihydroxyacetone, 3-hydroxybutyric acid and glucuronic acid increased significantly in the roots of wild soybean seedlings. However, these metabolites were suppressed in semi-wild and cultivated soybeans. Amino acid, fatty acid, sugars and organic acid synthesis and the secondary metabolism of antioxidants increased significantly in the roots of wild soybean seedling. Under alkaline salt stress, wild soybean contained significantly higher amounts of proline, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, l-allothreonine, isoleucine, serine, alanine, arachidic acid, oleic acid, cis-gondoic acid, fumaric acid, l-malic acid, citric acid, malonic acid, gluconic acid, 5-methoxytryptamine, salicylic acid and fluorene than semi-wild and cultivated soybeans. Our study demonstrated that carbon and nitrogen metabolism, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle and receiver operating characteristics (especially the metabolism of phenolic substances) of the seedling roots were important to resisting salt stress and showed a regular decreasing trend from wild soybean to cultivated soybean. The metabolomics’s changes were critical factors in the evolution of salt tolerance among Soja. This study provides new insights into salt tolerance in soybean, and presents quantitative parameters for a salt tolerant soybean breeding system, which is conducive to the rational use and protection of wild soybean resources.