title: Metabolic efficiency underpins performance trade-offs in growth of Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Growth often involves a trade-off between the performance of contending tasks; metabolic plasticity can play an important role. Here we grow 97 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions in three conditions with a differing supply of carbon and nitrogen and identify a trade-off between two tasks required for rosette growth: increasing the physical size and increasing the protein concentration. We employ the Pareto performance frontier concept to rank accessions based on their multitask performance; only a few accessions achieve a good trade-off under all three growth conditions. We determine metabolic efficiency in each accession and condition by using metabolite levels and activities of enzymes involved in growth and protein synthesis. We demonstrate that accessions with high metabolic efficiency lie closer to the performance frontier and show increased metabolic plasticity. We illustrate how public domain data can be used to search for additional contending tasks, which may underlie the sub-optimality in some accessions.
authors.affiliation: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kleessen
authors.affiliation: Molecular Mechanisms of Adaptation Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany.
authors.forename: Roosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laitinen
authors.affiliation: 1] System Regulation Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany [2] Instituto de Biotecnología, Centro Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas (CICVyA), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Nicolas Repetto y de los Reseros s/n, 1686, Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Corina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Fusari
authors.affiliation: 1] Central Metabolism Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany [2] Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenue da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Antonio
authors.affiliation: 1] System Regulation Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany [2] NUI Galway, Plant Systems Biology Lab, Plant and AgriBiosciences Research Centre, Botany and Plant Science, C311 Aras de Brun, Galway, Ireland.
authors.forename: Ronan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sulpice
authors.affiliation: Central Metabolism Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany.
authors.forename: Alisdair R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Fernie
authors.affiliation: System Regulation Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stitt
authors.affiliation: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm D-14476, Germany.
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Nikoloski
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen