A metabolomics insight into the Cyclic Nucleotide Monophosphate signaling cascade in tomato under non-stress and salinity conditions

Cyclic Nucleotides Monophosphate (cNMP) are key signalling compounds whose role in plant cell signal transduction is still poorly understood. In this work we used sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor used in human, to amplify the signal cascade triggered by cNMP using tomato as model plant. Metabolomics was then used, together with plant growth and root architecture parameters, to unravel the changes elicited by PDE inhibition either under non-stress and 100 mM NaCl salinity conditions. The PDE inhibitor elicited a significant increase in biomass (+62 %) and root length (+56 %) under no stress conditions, and affected root architecture in terms of distribution over diameter classes. Together with cGMP, others cNMP were modulated by the treatment. Moreover, PDE inhibition triggered a broad metabolic reprogramming involving photosynthesis and secondary metabolism. A complex crosstalk network of phytohormones and other signalling compounds could be observed in treated plants. Nonetheless, metabolites related to redox imbalance processes and NO signalling could be highlighted in tomato following PDE application. Despite salinity damped down the growth-promoting effects of sildenafil, interesting implications in plant mitigation to stress-related detrimental effects could be observed.