Maize Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.6, 284-293 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/mgg 288 Figure 1 Integrated model of salt stress response in maize revealed by metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis (Adapted from Liang et al., 2021). The schematic summarizes osmoprotectant accumulation, ion transport, and signal transduction pathways that coordinate salt tolerance in maize 5 Comparative Metabolomics of Tolerant vs. Sensitive Genotypes 5.1 Differential metabolite accumulation patterns highlight adaptive strategies The research studies using comparative metabolomics show that salt-resistant maize varieties produce more osmoprotectants including proline and sucrose and raffinose and antioxidant compounds like flavonoids and phenolic acids than salt-sensitive varieties which do not develop protective metabolic responses for osmotic balance and ROS detoxification (Liang et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2023; Brar et al., 2025). The tolerant lines show elevated proline content at both rest and stress conditions and RFOs function as protective agents through their roles as osmolytes and antioxidants. Research studies have found three metabolites that show differences between tolerant and sensitive lines because of their distinct resource allocation patterns (Liang et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2023). The different accumulation patterns demonstrate that tolerant maize plants focus on maintaining osmotic balance and ROS detoxification and metabolic resilience during salinity stress. The metabolomics analysis by Brar et al. (2025) showed that there were significant differences in the accumulation of proline, raffinose and flavonoid metabolites between salt-tolerant and sensitive maize genotypes (Figure 2), which constituted the metabolic basis for their adaptation to salt stress. 5.2 Network robustness underpins resilience in tolerant genotypes The distinction between tolerant and sensitive maize genotypes depends on both individual metabolite variations and network-level differences. The tolerant lines show more modular interconnected and redundant metabolic networks which have multiple pathways including proline GABA and polyamines that work in parallel to reduce osmotic and oxidative stress and provide robustness through redundancy (Liang et al., 2021; Brar et al., 2025).
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