Ascorbate-glutathione cycle and abiotic stress tolerance in plants

BARTOLI, CARLOS GUILLERMO; BUET, AGUSTINA; GERGOFF GROZEFF, GUSTAVO; GALATRO, ANDREA; SIMONTACCHI, MARCELA

Ascorbic Acid in Plant Growth, Development and Stress Tolerance

Springer International Publishing

Año: 2018;

Plants confront fluctuating and in some cases intenseenvironmental conditions, such as changes in irradiation, water availability, extremetemperatures, mineral nutrient accessibility, and air pollutants exposition amongothers. In order to face abiotic stress situations, the redox buffer capacity,mainly represented by ascorbic acid (AsA) and glutathione (GSH) pools, isinvolved in growth-stress responses crossroad. These compounds are associatedin a set of reactions known as AsA-GSH cycle. The main function of the AsA-GSHoriginally observed was the detoxification of reactive oxygen species (ROS) indifferent subcellular compartments such as chloroplast, mitochondria orcytosol. More recently, the crucial participation of the AsA-GSH cycle in theoptimization of photosynthesis was established. In addition, these antioxidantsare considered essential components of cell signaling pathways triggeringadaptive plant responses. The role of redox buffer capacity is analyzed regardingthe ability of plants to overcome some selected abiotic stress situations.