Rearrangement of carbon metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana subjected to oxidative stress condition: an emergency survival strategy

SCARPECI TE, VALLE EM

PLANT GROWTH REGULATION

Springer

Año: 2008 vol. 54 p. 133 - 142

0167-6903

Abstract Studies of oxidative stress in plants beganseveral years ago, although many aspects of theantioxidant response are still unknown. In this work,we analyze the transcription profile of Arabidopsisthaliana leaves under oxidative and control conditions.Plants were challenged with methyl viologen (MV), aredox cycling herbicide that produces superoxideanion (O2•-) in the light and in the chloroplasts,generating inhibition of photosynthesis. Gas exchangemeasurements and starch and soluble sugars wereassayed to test the status of primary metabolism ofArabidopsis leaves. Within the first 2 h of 50 lMMVtreatment, several genes were differentially expressed,among them were proteins implicated in photosynthesis,respiration, and carbon metabolism. Soluble sugarsand starch markedly dropped after 3 h MV treatment,while respiration rate showed a steady increase after4 h oxidative treatment. It was observed that theanabolic pathways were repressed while catabolicpathways were induced after the oxidative treatment.Overall, results suggest a rearrangement of carbonmetabolism in the leaves, which could reflect a shorttermmechanism of survival of Arabidopsis seedlingssubjected to severe oxidative stress conditions.