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Study of the senescence process in primary leaves of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants under two different light intensities

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Photosynthetica

Abstract

Different parameters that vary during leaf development may be affected by light intensity. To study the influence of different light intensities on primary leaf senescence, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants were grown for 50 days under two photon flux density (PFD) conditions, namely high irradiance (HI) at 350 μmol(photon) m−2 s−1 and low irradiance (LI) at 125 μmol(photon) m−2 s−1. Plants grown under HI exhibited greater specific leaf mass referred to dry mass, leaf area and soluble protein at the beginning of the leaf development. This might have resulted from the increased CO2 fixation rate observed in HI plants, during early development of primary leaves. Chlorophyll a and b contents in HI plants were lower than in LI plants in young leaves. By contrast, the carotenoid content was significantly higher in HI plants. Glucose concentration increased with the leaf age in both treatments (HI and LI), while the starch content decreased sharply in HI plants, but only slightly in LI plants. Glucose contents were higher in HI plants than in LI plants; the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05) mainly at the beginning of the leaf senescence. On the other hand, starch contents were higher in HI plants than in LI plants, throughout the whole leaf development period. Nitrate reductase (NR) activity decreased with leaf ageing in both treatments. However, the NR activation state was higher during early leaf development and decreased more markedly in senescent leaves in plants grown under HI. GS activity also decreased during sunflower leaf ageing under both PFD conditions, but HI plants showed higher GS activities than LI plants. Aminating and deaminating activities of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) peaked at 50 days (senescent leaves). GDH deaminating activity increased 5-fold during the leaf development in HI plants, but only 2-fold in LI plants. The plants grown under HI exhibited considerable oxidative stress in vivo during the leaf senescence, as revealed by the substantial H2O2 accumulation and the sharply decrease in the antioxidant enzymes, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase, in comparison with LI plants. Probably, systemic signals triggered by a high PFD caused early senescence and diminished oxidative protection in primary leaves of sunflower plants as a result.

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Abbreviations

APX:

ascorbate peroxidase

Car:

carotenoids

CAT:

catalase

Chl:

chlorophyll

DTT:

dithiothreitol

DM:

dry mass

EDTA:

ethylenediaminotetraacetic acid

FAD:

flavin adenine dinucleotide

GDH:

glutamate dehydrogenase

GOGAT:

glutamate synthetase

g s :

stomatal conductance

GS:

glutamine synthetase

GS1:

cytosolic glutamine synthetase

GS2:

chloroplastic glutamine synthetase

HI:

high irradiance

LI:

low irradiance

NiR:

nitrite reductase

NR:

nitrate reductase

PFD:

photon flux density

P N :

net photosynthetic rate

ROS:

reactive oxygen species

SLM:

specific leaf mass

SOD:

superoxide dismutase

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Correspondence to E. Agüera.

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Acknowledgements. This work was funded by Junta de Andalucía (Grant P07-CVI-02627 and PAI group BIO-0159) and DGICYT (AGL2009-11290). The authors are grateful to Mr. A. Velasco Blanco for his valuable technical assistance and to Prof. Dr. J. Diz Pérez for the helpful advice on the statistical analysis.

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De La Mata, L., Cabello, P., De La Haba, P. et al. Study of the senescence process in primary leaves of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants under two different light intensities. Photosynthetica 51, 85–94 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-013-0001-x

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