Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:38:06.795Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Free radical processes induced by desiccation in germinating maize. The relationship with respiration and loss of desiccation tolerance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

O. Leprince ,
G. A. F. Hendry  and
N. M. Atherton
O. Leprince
Affiliation:
USDA-ARS National Seed Storage Laboratory, 1111 S. Mason Street, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
G. A. F. Hendry
Affiliation:
Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
N. M. Atherton
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
Get access

Synopsis

Using germination of maize as a model, desiccation-induced free radical processes were studied with the object of understanding desiccation tolerance. Several significant elements of damage were observed in desiccated material associated with development of desiccation intolerance: increased lipid peroxidation, phospholipid de-esterification, build-up of a stable free radical, supression or repression of respiratory enzymes from complex I, II and IV. An EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) response was also detected in isolated mitochondria following in vitro desiccation. The loss of desiccation tolerance appeared to be dependent on oxygen concentration. Two highly significant correlations were independently found between respiration rates and production of a stable free radical detected by EPR. These data suggest that respiration is an important factor in the loss of desiccation tolerance. We present a model suggesting that activated oxygen formation during desiccation originates in the disruption of the mitochondrial electron transport chain with increasing leakage to oxygen so generating irreversible and lethal peroxidative damage, leading to the development of desiccation intolerance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 102: Oxygen and Environmental Stress in Plants , 1994 , pp. 211 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blackman, S. A., Obendorf, R. L. & Leopold, A. C. 1992. Maturation proteins and sugars in desiccation tolerance of developing soybean seeds. Plant Physiology 100, 225–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cadenas, E. 1989. Biochemistry of oxygen toxicity. Annual Review of Biochemistry 58, 79–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halliwell, B. 1987. Oxidative damage, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant protection in chloroplasts. Chemistry and Physics of Lipids 44, 327–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendry, G. A. F., Finch-Savage, W. E., Thorpe, P. C., Atherton, N. M., Buckland, S. H., Nilsson, K. A. & Seel, W. E. 1992. Free radical processes and loss of viability during desiccation in the recalcitrant species Quercus robur L. New Phytologist 122, 273–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendry, G. A. F. & Grime, J. P. 1993. Methods in comparative plant ecology. London: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leprince, O., Deltour, R., Thorpe, P. C., Atherton, N. M. & Hendry, G. A. F. 1990. The role of free radicals and radical processing systems in loss of desiccation tolerance in germinating maize (Zea mays L.) New Phytologist 116, 573–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leprince, O., Van der Werf, A., Deltour, R. & Lambers, H. 1992. Respiratory pathways in germinating maize radicles correlated with desiccation tolerance and soluble sugars. Physiologia Plantarum 85, 581–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leprince, O., Hendry, G. A. F. & McKersie, B. D. 1993. Mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in developing seeds. Seed Science Research 3, 231–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leprince, O., Atherton, N. M., Deltour, R. & Hendry, G. A. F. 1994. The involvement of respiration in free radical processes during loss of desiccation tolerance in germinating Zea mays L. An electron paramagnetic resonance study. Plant Physiology 104, 1333–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKersie, B. D. 1991. The role of oxygen free radicals in mediating freezing and desiccation stress in plants. In Pell, E. J. & Steffen, K. (Eds) Active oxygen/oxidative stress and plant metabolism, pp. 107–18. Rockville, MD: American Society of Plant Physiology.Google Scholar
McKersie, B. D., Hoekstra, F. A. & Krieg, L. C. 1990. Differences in the susceptibility of plant membrane lipids to peroxidation. Biochimica Biophysica Ada 1030, 119–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puntarulo, S., Galleano, M., Sanchez, R. A. & Boveris, A. 1991. Superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide metabolism in soybean embryonic axes during germination. Biochimica Biophysica Acta 1074, 277–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seel, W. E., Hendry, G. A. F., Atherton, N. M. & Lee, J. 1991. Radical formation and accumulation in vivo, in desiccation tolerant and intolerant mosses. Free Radical Research Communications 15, 133–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Senaratna, T. & McKersie, B. D. 1986. Loss of desiccation during seed germination. A free radical mechanism of injury. In Leopold, A. C. (Ed.) Membranes metabolism and dry organisms. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Senaratna, T., McKersie, B. D. & Borochov, A. 1987. Desiccation and free radical mediated changes in plant membranes. Journal of Experimental Botany 38, 2005–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turrens, J. F., Beconi, M., Barilla, J., Chavez, U. B. & McCord, J. M. 1991. Mitochondrial generation of oxygen radicals during reoxygenation of ischemic tissues. Free Radical Research Communications 12/13, 681–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed