Abstract
Plants are able to acclimate to their growth light environments by utilizing a number of short- and long-term mechanisms. One strategy is to prevent accumulation of excess reactive oxygen species that can lead to photoinhibition of photosynthesis. Ureides, generated from purine degradation, have been proposed as antioxidants and involved in certain abiotic stress responses. Eutrema salsugineum (Thellungiella salsuginea) is an extremophilic plant known to exhibit a high degree of tolerance to a variety of abiotic stresses that invariably generate reactive oxygen species. In the present study we have investigated the possible role of the ureide metabolic pathway during acclimation to growth irradiance and its conference of tolerance to photoinhibition in Eutrema. Ureide accumulation was greater under high light growth which also conferred tolerance to photoinhibition at low temperature as measured by the maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry. This may represent an adaptive plastic response contributing to the extreme tolerance exhibited by this plant. Our results would provide evidence that ureide accumulation may be involved in abiotic stress as another defence mechanism in response to oxidative stress.
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Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
abscisic acid
- ACT7 :
-
actin7
- AAH:
-
allantoate amidohydrolase
- ALN:
-
allantoinase
- Chl:
-
chlorophyll
- FM:
-
fresh mass
- Fv/Fm :
-
maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry
- HL:
-
high light
- ML:
-
moderate light
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
- sqPCR:
-
semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction
- UAH:
-
ureidoglycolate amidohydrolase
- UGlyAH:
-
ureidoglycine aminohydrolase
- UO:
-
urate oxidase
- XDH:
-
xanthine dehydrogenase
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Acknowledgments: This project was supported from Discovery funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada to G.R. Gray and C.D. Todd, and in part, by an Undergraduate Research Grant, Office of the Vice-President Research, University of Saskatchewan to V.M. Malik. We thank Eva-Maria Aro (University of Turku) for useful discussion.
These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Malik, V.M., Lobo, J.M., Stewart, C. et al. Growth irradiance affects ureide accumulation and tolerance to photoinhibition in Eutrema salsugineum (Thellungiella salsuginea). Photosynthetica 54, 93–100 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0164-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0164-8