Response of the plant hormone network to boron deficiency

Plant hormones (PH) adjust plant growth to environmental conditions such as nutrient availability. Although responses of individual PHs to growth-determining nutrient supplies have been reported, little is known about simultaneous dynamics in the metabolism of different PH species. Brassica napus seedlings were grown under increasing supply of B, and LC-MS/MS was used to characterize bioactive forms of different PH species together with several of their precursors, storage and inactivated forms. Increasing shoot B concentrations in response to B supply were accompanied by decreasing concentrations of abscisic acid (ABA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which appeared to be synthesized under B deficiency mainly via indole-3-acetonitrile (IAN). By contrast, shoot B concentrations correlated closely with cytokinins, and the B-dependent growth response appeared to be triggered primarily by de-novo synthesis of cytokinins and by re-routing less active towards highly active forms of cytokinin. Also gibberellin biosynthesis strongly increased with B supply, in particular gibberellin species from the non-13-hydroxylation pathway. The brassinosteroid castasterone appeared to support shoot growth primarily at suboptimal B nutrition. These results indicate that a variable B nutritional status causes coordinated changes in PH metabolism as prerequisite for an adjusted growth response.