In plants, apical hook opening is critical for the post-germination stage and subsequent photomorphogenesis, and this process is activated by a luminous environment. Primary and secondary metabolites are universally distributed in plants and play vital roles in seedling development and stress response. However, little is known about the metabolic dynamics in response to light during the apical hook opening phase so far. To throw further light on this omission, we performed dark- and light-grown seedling by examining widely non-targeted metabolomics and a full-scale detection of flavonoids in virtue of GC–MS and LC-QTOF/MS strategy, respectively, in the model medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus. Results herein revealed the strong differences focusing on metabolites distribution in response to light stimulus during the apical hook opening phase. In terms of primary metabolites, the sugar derivatives increased upon light exposure except for several special sugars, such as glucose, fucose, and galactose. Nevertheless, amino acids and several acids were stored in etiolated seedling, which was probably regarded as connecting with C/N balance. Strangely, in terms of flavonoids, flavonols caused by FLS gene expression were dramatically promoted in etiolation whereas reduced during de-etiolation, which likely associated with auxin asymmetric distribution by acting as an inhibitor of auxin transport. Therefore, we proposed a metabolic network elaborating the metabolite dynamics in a light-dependent manner during the apical hook opening phase. Our global view of metabolites alterations in C. roseus provided a new insight into uncovering the complex metabolic changes for the post-germination growth in seedling establishment.

在植物中，顶端钩子的开口对于萌发后阶段和随后的光形态发生至关重要，这个过程是由发光环境激活的。初级和次级代谢物普遍分布于植物中，在幼苗发育和胁迫响应中起着至关重要的作用。然而，到目前为止，对根尖钩打开阶段响应光的代谢动力学知之甚少。为了进一步阐明这一遗漏，我们分别利用 GC-MS 和 LC-QTOF/MS 策略，通过检查广泛的非靶向代谢组学和黄酮类化合物的全面检测来进行深色和浅色生长的幼苗。模式药用植物长春花. 本文的结果揭示了在顶端钩打开阶段期间响应光刺激的代谢物分布的强烈差异。就初级代谢物而言，除葡萄糖、岩藻糖和半乳糖等几种特殊糖类外，糖类衍生物在光照下增加。然而，氨基酸和几种酸储存在黄化幼苗中，这可能被认为与C/N平衡有关。奇怪的是，在黄酮类方面，FLS引起的黄酮醇基因表达在黄化过程中显着促进而在去黄化过程中减少，这可能与作为生长素转运抑制剂的生长素不对称分布有关。因此，我们提出了一个代谢网络，在顶端钩打开阶段以光依赖的方式阐述代谢物动力学。我们对C. roseus代谢物改变的全球观点为揭示幼苗建立中发芽后生长的复杂代谢变化提供了新的见解。