biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 50:775-778, 2006 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-006-0129-7

Nitric oxide treatment alleviates drought stress in wheat seedlings

X. Tian¹, Y. Lei^2,*

¹ School of Biological Resources and Environmental Sciences, Jishou University, Hunan, P.R. China

² Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, P.R. China

The effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP; nitric oxide donor) treatment on drought stress induced by PEG for different periods of time in wheat seedlings were investigated. Our results suggested that treatment for 2, 4 and 6 d with 15 % PEG could be termed as mild, moderate and severe stress, respectively. Drought stress induced accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and resulted in lipid peroxidation. On the other hand, activities of SOD, CAT and PAL increased under mild stress to counteract the oxidative injury and then decreased when the stress became severe (6 d). As the effect of SNP treatment, 0.2 mM enhanced wheat seedlings growth and kept high relative water content and alleviated the oxidative damage. However, 2 mM SNP aggravated the stress as a result of uncontrolled generation of reactive oxygen species and ineffectiveness of antioxidant systems.

Keywords: ascorbate peroxidase; catalase; guaiacol peroxidase; L-phenylalanine ammonia lyase; reactive oxygen species; superoxide dismutase; Triticum aeslivum

Subjects: ascorbate peroxidase; catalase; drought stress; guaiacol peroxidase; nitric oxide; phenylalanine ammonia lyase; reactive oxygen species (ROS); relative water content (RWC); superoxide dismutase (SOD); Triticum aestivum; wheat

Received: March 30, 2005; Accepted: October 18, 2005; Published: December 1, 2006  Show citation