Water shortage is a major factor that harms agriculture and ecosystems worldwide. Plants display various levels of tolerance to water deficit, but only resurrection plants can survive full desiccation of their vegetative tissues. Haberlea rhodopensis, an endemic plant of the Balkans, is one of the few resurrection plants found in Europe. We performed transcriptomic analyses of this species under slight, severe and full dehydration and recovery to investigate the dynamics of gene expression and associate them with existing physiological and metabolomics data. De novo assembly yielded a total of 142,479 unigenes with an average sequence length of 1034 nt. Among them, 18,110 unigenes were differentially expressed. Hierarchical clustering of all differentially expressed genes resulted in seven clusters of dynamic expression patterns. The most significant expression changes, involving more than 15,000 genes, started at severe dehydration (~ 20% relative water content) and were partially maintained at full desiccation (< 10% relative water content). More than a hundred pathways were enriched and functionally organized in a GO/pathway network at the severe dehydration stage. Transcriptomic changes in key pathways were analyzed and discussed in relation to metabolic processes, signal transduction, quality control of protein and DNA repair in this plant during dehydration and rehydration. Reprograming of the transcriptome occurs during severe dehydration, resulting in a profound alteration of metabolism toward alternative energy supply, hormone signal transduction, and prevention of DNA/protein damage under very low cellular water content, underlying the observed physiological and metabolic responses and the resurrection behavior of H. rhodopensis.

Members of the genus Cuscuta are generally considered to be non-photosynthetic, stem-holoparasitic flowering plants. Under certain circumstances, at least some members of the genus are capable of limited photosynthesis. The galls of the Smicronyx weevils formed on Cuscuta campestris are particularly rich in chlorophylls compared to the stem of the parasitic plant. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the photosynthetic activity in the inner and outer gall cortices in comparison to the non-photosynthetic stems and a reference plant (Arabidopsis thaliana). The recorded prompt chlorophyll fluorescence transients were analyzed using JIP test. Detailed analysis of the chlorophyll fluorescence confirmed the presence of actively functioning photosynthetic machinery, especially in the inner cortex of the galls. This photosynthesis, induced by the insect larvae, did not reach the levels of the photosynthetic activity in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Thylakoid protein complexes were identified by separation with two-dimensional Blue Native/SDS PAGE. It appeared that some of the complexes presented in A. thaliana are missing in C. campestris. We hypothesize that the insect-triggered transition from non-photosynthetic to photosynthetic tissue in the gall is driven by the increased requirements for nutrients related to the larval nutrition.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are the fourth most economically important crop in the world. They have a short period of vegetation and are an excellent source of carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins, organic acids, minerals and phenolics as antioxidant substances. Potato can be a major dietary source of various bioactive compounds. In this study, we applied gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolite profiling to classify eight Bulgarian potato cultivars bred in the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute (VCRI), Plovdiv, according to their metabolite contents. Altogether, we determine their flavonoids/phenolics to evaluate their nutritive quality for the breeding program with the target of determining strong health-promoting compounds. The “Kalina” cultivar is highlighted as the best one with the highest number of metabolites, containing 14 out of the 26 evaluated; it was selected as the highest-quality cultivar, compared with the other seven cultivars studied. According to the grouping of the cultivars in principal component analysis PCA, their positive distribution is explained mainly by them having the highest contents of aminobutyric and isocitric acids, methionine and alanine and lower levels of fumaric acid, pyroglutamic acid and glycine, in contrast to the cultivars distributed negatively, which had high contents of carbohydrates and relatively low contents of most of the amino acids. The highest number of amino acids was found in the cultivar “Kalina”, followed by “Perun” and “Bor”. The highest number of carbohydrates was found in “Pavelsko” and “Iverce”, while the prominent accumulation of organic acids was found in “Kalina”, “Bor” and “Rozhen”. The highest number of flavonoids in the flesh of the tubers was found in the cultivars “Nadezhda” and “Pavelsko”, followed by “Bor”. The highest ratio of flavonoids/phenolics in the flesh was found in “Pavelsko” and in “Nadezhda”, followed by “Iverce”.

This study examines the morphological growth and metabolic responses of two Camassia leichtlinii cultivars, ‘Alba’ and ‘Caerulea’, cultivated under three contrasting systems: open field, outdoor pots, and greenhouse (indoor pots). Morphological parameters, including leaf number, scape development, and bulb biometric traits, were assessed over two consecutive growth seasons. Parallel GC–MS metabolite profiling identified 38 major compounds encompassing sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and organic acids. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering (HCA) effectively discriminated samples by cultivation condition, cultivar, and plant maturity. Environmental factors accounted for the largest share of metabolic variation (61%), followed by genotype (28%) and plant age (6%). The cultivar ‘Caerulea’ exhibited greater biomass accumulation and broader metabolic variability under greenhouse conditions, while ‘Alba’ maintained consistently high sucrose and glutamine levels across environments. Notably, the greenhouse environment, although strongly promoting primary metabolite accumulation, suppressed scape initiation and flowering in both cultivars, indicating a trade-off between metabolic enhancement and reproductive development under controlled conditions. These findings highlight differential adaptive strategies among Camassia cultivars and provide molecular insights into their carbohydrate metabolism, environmental responsiveness, and potential nutritional and phytochemical applications under diverse horticultural conditions.