AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.366922/AJWEP025150108
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Phosphorus alleviates aluminum toxicity in Camellia oleifera seedlings by regulating the leaf metabolic profile: Insights from metabolomics

Yi Wang1,2* ,  Xing Chen2 ,  Yongquan Li2* ,  Aiai Xu1
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1 Institute of Resources, Environment and Soil Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Fujian Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
2 Department of Forestry, College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
AJWEP, 025150108 https://doi.org/10.366922/AJWEP025150108
Received: 8 April 2025 | Revised: 7 June 2025 | Accepted: 11 June 2025 | Published online: 22 July 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Camellia oleifera Abel, recognized as one of the world’s four major woody edible oil sources, is extensively cultivated in the acidic red soil regions in southern China. This study focused on C. oleifera seedlings to investigate the mechanisms through which phosphorus (P) mitigates aluminum (Al) toxicity. The seedlings were subjected to various P–Al solutions at different concentration ratios, and a metabolomic analysis of their leaves was then conducted. The analysis identified a total of 509 metabolites, predominantly flavonoids and tannins. Among these, 466 flavonoids showed significant increases across all comparison groups, whereas 35 differentially abundant metabolites were consistently detected. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional annotation and enrichment analysis highlighted the isoflavone biosynthesis pathway as the most significantly enriched pathway among the differentially abundant metabolites. Key metabolites identified as significantly differentially abundant included glycitin, naringenin, and 3,9-dihydroxypterocarpan. This research elucidates the metabolic alterations in C. oleifera seedlings under P and Al stress, suggesting that changes in flavonoid metabolites and the activation of the isoflavone biosynthesis pathway may be crucial adaptive strategies for C. oleifera to withstand such stresses. The findings not only offer a theoretical foundation for enhancing plant stress resistance but also provide valuable insights into the cultivation and management practices of C. oleifera.

Keywords
Camellia oleifera
Aluminum toxicity
Phosphorus
Flavonoids
Metabolomic
Funding
This research was supported by Fujian Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, grant number 2023PNFKL21.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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