Abstract
It has been known that polyploidization often causes not only cell volume increase but also increased accumulation of secondary metabolites that appears to be linked to higher resistance against harsh environments. But this is mere an empirical knowledge and no supportive data has been reported to date. To solve this, we analyzed difference in the metabolite profiles between diploid and tetraploid of the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. First, we constructed tetraploids of Columbia wild type that show duplicated cell volume, larger statue and slower growth rate than their diploid counterparts. Flowcyte analysis revealed that endocycling patterns in leaves of tetraploids were similar to those of diploids. Then we carried out a wide-target analysis of metabolites (Sawada et al., 2009) using seeds and leaves from plants grown under several culture conditions. As a result, differences between diploids and tetraploids varied among seeds and leaves and culture conditions. Interestingly, the contents of amino acids and glucosinolates were significantly higher in tetraploid than diploid seeds. Further analyses on this difference are now in progress.
