Metabolomic Analysis of Plant Hormone-Related Metabolites in Medicago sativa Under Low-Temperature Stress

(1) Background: This study used the cold-tolerant cultivar “Daye No. 3” (DY) and the cold-sensitive cultivar “Longdong” (LD) as plant materials to study the metabolic changes in plant hormones in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) under cold stress. (2) Methods: The targeted quantitative detection of phytohormones in alfalfa was carried out by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology. Principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal signal correction, and partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to investigate sample classification and screen differential metabolites. (3) Results: The results showed that 17 differential metabolites were detected. Seven metabolites showed common changes in the two cultivars after low-temperature stress induction. The levels of tryptamine, N-jasmonoylisoleucine, trans-zeatin riboside, isopentenyladenine riboside, cis-zeatin riboside, and gibberellin A7 were decreased, while N6-isopentenyladenine levels increased. In addition, compared with the LD variety, DY had more metabolite changes in response to low-temperature stress. Abscisic acid and trans-zeatin were elevated, whereas IAA-alanine, dihydrozeatin riboside, and indole-3-carboxaldehyde showed reduced concentrations. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis showed that differential plant hormones were more active in plant hormone signal transduction, zeatin biosynthesis, and tryptophan metabolism pathways. In addition, a total of 12 metabolites in these three pathways showed common changes under cold stress. (4) This study identified significant metabolomic differences between two alfalfa genotypes under stress. It highlighted key pathways and provided new insights into the metabolic changes of alfalfa under cold-stress conditions.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Molecules

• Publication date

  2025-08-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/molecules30163373PMID 40871526PMCID 12388558
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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