Fig. 4

BRL3 overexpression plants show a primed metabolic signature. a Metabolites differentially accumulated in BRL3ox (dark green) or quad (light green) shoots relative to WT at basal conditions. b Metabolites differentially accumulated in BRL3ox (dark green) or quad (light green) roots relative to WT at basal conditions. a, b Boxplot represent the median and interquartile range (IQR). Whiskers depict Q1 – 1.5*IQR and Q3 + 1.5*IQR and points experimental observations (n = 5). Asterisks denote statistical differences in a two-tailed t-test (p-value < 0.05) for raw data comparisons BRL3ox vs. WT (panel right side) or quad (panel left side). c Metabolites following differential dynamics between BRL3ox and WT shoots along the drought time course. d Metabolites following differential dynamics between BRL3ox and WT roots along the drought time course. c, d Heatmap represents the log₂ ratio of BRL3ox/WT. e–j Clustering of the dynamics of relative metabolite levels along the drought time course in shoots and roots. Solid lines show the actual metabolic profile (averages) of the representative metabolite for each cluster while dashed lines represent the polynomial curve that best fit the profile. Statistical significance was evaluated with the maSigPro package. e Metabolites following a linear increase during drought in shoots include glucose, glucose-1P, myo-inositol, and sinapate. f Proline follows a steeper exponential increase in BRL3ox shoots. g Metabolites following an exponential increase in BRL3ox shoots but nearly a linear increase in WT include galactose, GABA, phenylalanine, tyrosine, 2-methylmalate, lysine, isoleucine, leucine, nicotinate, uracil, and tryptophan. h Metabolites following a steeper exponential increase in BRL3ox roots include trehalose, sucrose, proline, and raffinose. i Metabolites following a reduced linear increase until a certain maximum in BRL3ox roots include glycerate and malate. j Metabolites following an exponential increase in BRL3ox roots but a linear increase in WT include glucose, fructose, myo-inositol, galactose, and asparagine