Response to temperature stress of reactive oxygen species scavenging enzymes in the cross-tolerance of barley seed germination

A number of studies have shown the existence of cross-tolerance in plants, but the physiological mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we used the germination of barley seeds as a system to investigate the cross-tolerance of low-temperature pretreatment to high-temperature stress and the possible involvement of reactive oxygen species （ROS） scavenging enzymes in the cross-tolerance. After pretreatment at 0 ℃ for different periods of time, barley seeds were germinated at 35 ℃, and the content of malondialdehyde （MDA） and the activities of ROS scavenging enzymes were measured by a spectrophotometer analysis. The results showed that barley seed germinated very poorly at 35 ℃, and this inhibitive effect could be overcome by pretreatment at 0 ℃. The MDA content varied, depending on the temperature at which seeds germinated, while barley seeds pretreated at 0 ℃ did not change the MDA content. Compared with seeds germinated directly at 35 ℃, the seeds pretreated first at 0 ℃ and then germinated at 35 ℃ had markedly increased activities of superoxide dismutase （SOD）, ascorbate peroxidase （APX）, catalase （CAT）, and glutathione reductase （GR）. The SOD and APX activities of seeds germinated at 35 ℃ after 0 ℃-pretreatment were even substantially higher than those at 25 ℃, and GR activity was similar to that at 25 ℃, at which the highest germination performance of barley seeds was achieved. These results indicate that low-temperature pretreatment can markedly increase the tolerance of barley seed to high temperature during germination, this being related to the increase in ROS scavenging enzyme activity. This may provide a new method for increasing seed germination under stress environments, and may be an excellent model system for the study of cross-tolerance.

Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Enzymes and Down-Adjustment of Metabolism Level in Mitochondria Associated with Desiccation-Tolerance Acquisition of Maize Embryo

It is a well-known fact that a mature seed can survive losing most of its water, yet how seeds acquire desiccation- tolerance is not well understood. Through sampling maize embryos of different developmental stages and comparatively studying the integrity, oxygen consumption rate and activities of antioxidant enzymes in the mitochondria, the main origin site of reactive oxygen species （ROS） production in seed cells, we found that before an embryo achieves desiccation-tolerance, its mitochondria shows a more active metabolism, and might produce more ROS and therefore need a more effective ROS scavenging system. However, embryo dehydration in this developmental stage declined the activities of most main antioxidant enzymes and accumulated thiobarbituric acid-reactive products in mitochondria, and then destroyed the structure and functional integrity of mitochondria. In physiologically-matured embryos （dehydration- tolerant）, mitochondria showed lower metabolism levels, and no decline in ROS scavenging enzyme activities and less accumulation of thiobarbituric acid-reactive products after embryo dehydration. These data indicate that seed desiccation- tolerance acquisition might be associated with down-adjustment of the metabolism level in the late development stage, resulting in less ROS production, and ROS scavenging enzymes becoming desiccation-tolerant and then ensuring the structure and functional integrity of mitochondria.

Response of Chinese Wampee Axes and Maize Embryos to Dehydration at Different Rates

Survival of wampee （Clausena lansium Skeels） axes and maize （Zea mays L.） embryos decreased with rapid and slow dehydration. Damage of wampee axes by rapid dehydration was much less than by slow dehydration, and that was contrary to maize embryos. The malondialdehyde contents of wampee axes and maize embryos rapidly increased with dehydration, those of wampee axes were lower during rapid dehydration than during slow dehydration, and those of maize embryos were higher during rapid dehydration than during slow dehydration. Activities of superoxide dismutase （SOD）, ascorbate peroxidase （APX） and catalase （CAT） of wampee axes markedly increased during the early phase of dehydration, and then rapidly decreased, and those of rapidly dehydrated axes were higher than those of slow dehydrated axes when they were dehydrated to low water contents. Activities of SOD and APX of maize embryos notable decreased with dehydration. There were higher SOD activities and lower APX activities of slowly dehydrated maize embryos compared with rapidly dehydrated maize embryos. CAT activities of maize embryos markedly increased during the early phase of dehydration, and then decreased, and those of slowly dehydrated embryos were higher than those of rapidly dehydrated embryos during the late phase of dehydration.