Characteristics of water relations in seedling of Machilus yunnanensis and Cinnamomum camphora under soil drought condition

The soil drought stress experiment in different durations (no watering within 3d, 6d, 9d, 11d individually) was conducted to study the drought-resistant capacity of one-year-old seedlings for the native tree species (Machilus yunnanensis) in Yunnan Province and the introduced tree species (Cinnamomum camphora). The leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, proline content and plasma membrane permeability for two species seedlings were measured in different soil drought conditions. The results showed that, on the 9th day of drought stress, the leaf water potential of two species decreased obviously, whereas the free proline content and plasma membrane permeability increased sharply. On the 11th day, the leaf water potential of C. camphora seedlings was lower than that of M. yunnanensis seedlings; the plasma membrane permeability in C. camphora seedling leaves increased much more than that in M. yunnanensis seedling leaves, which showed that the injury to the former by soil drought stress was more severe than that to the latter. The free proline content in M. yunnanensis seedling leaves continued to increase on the 11th day, but that in the C. camphora seedling leaves started to drop obviously, indicating that the reduction of osmotic regulation substance in C. camphora seedling leaves after the 11th day was unable to maintain the osmotic balance between the plasma system and its surroundings and the water loss occurred inevitably. Comprehensively, M. yunnanensis seedlings enhanced the drought-resistance in the course of soil drought stress by maintaining higher leaf water potential and by increasing osmotic regulation substance to promote cell plasma concentration and maintain membrane structure integrity so as to reduce water loss. The subordination function index evaluated with fuzzy mathematic theory also showed that the drought-resistant capacity of M. yunnanensis seedlings was stronger than that of C. camphora seedlings.

Electron paramagnetic resonance study of amphiphiles partitioning behavior in desiccation-tolerant moss during dehydration

Desiccation tolerance is a crucial characteristic for desert moss surviving in arid regions. Desiccation procedure always induces amphiphiles transferring from the polar cytoplasm into lipid bodies. The behavior of amphiphiles transferring can contribute to the enhancement of desiccation tolerance and the reduction of plasma membrane integrity simultaneously. The effects of amphiphiles partitioning into the lipid phase during water loss has been studied for pollen and seeds using electron paramagnetic resonance （EPR） spectroscopy. However, desiccation-tolerant high plants occur among mosses, several angiosperms and higher plants seeds or pollens. They have different strategies for survival in dehydration and rehydration. A desiccation-tolerant moss Tortula desertorurn was used to investigate the behaviors of amphiphilic molecules during drying by spin label technology. There are small amount of amphiphilic probes partitioning into membrane during moss leaves dehydration, comparing with that in higher plants. Cytoplasm viscosity changed from 1.14 into glass state only dehydration less than 60 min. Moss leaves lost plasma membrane integrity slightly,from 0.115 to 0.237, occurred simultaneously with amphiphiles partition. The results showed the more advantages of mosses than higher plants in adapting fast dehydration. We propose that EPR spin label is feasible for studying the amphiphiles partitioning mechanisms in membrane protection and damage for desiccation-tolerant mosses.