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Exogenous nitric oxide mediates alleviation of mercury toxicity by promoting auxin transport in roots or preventing oxidative stress in leaves of rice seedlings

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Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO), a multifunctional gaseous molecule, mediates a variety of responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. The effects of exogenous NO on rice (Oryza sativa cv. ‘Zhonghua 11’) growth under mercuric chloride (HgCl2) stress were investigated. The results showed that 60 μM Hg significantly inhibited the root elongation of rice plantlets after seed germination. While 100 μM or 200 μM sodium nitroprusside (SNP, a donor of NO) could increase the root length by attenuating the effects of 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) and Hg, which indicated the role of NO in auxin transport-promoting in roots. On the other hand, SNP decreased the absorption and transportation of Hg in roots and shoots of rice seedlings at five-leaf stage. Moreover, the levels of superoxide radical (O2·−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in leaves were also decreased significantly. However, the activities of antioxidant enzymes were not enhanced by SNP. Moreover, NO promoted the growth of rice plantlets under Hg stress even when superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) or catalase (CAT, 1.11.1.6) activity was inhibited by diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC, an inhibitor of SOD) or 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (AT, an inhibitor of catalase), respectively. These results confirmed that NO could act as the direct quencher of O2·− and then prevent the oxidative damage caused by Hg ion in leaves.

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Abbreviations

Hg:

Mercury

NO:

Nitric oxide

SNP:

Sodium nitroprusside

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

O2·− :

Superoxide radical

H2O2 :

Hydrogen peroxide

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

CAT:

Catalase

DDC:

Diethyldithiocarbamate

AT:

3-amino-1,2,4-triazole

TIBA:

2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant NO: 3100246) and Taizhou University’s Scientific Research Project (2014PY024).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, No. 1139 Shifu Road, 318000, Taizhou, People’s Republic of China

    Zhen Chen

  2. College of Ecology, Lishui University, No. 1 Xueyuan Road, 323000, Lishui, People’s Republic of China

    Long Zhang

  3. College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, No. 258 Xueyuan Street, 310018, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Cheng Zhu

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  1. Zhen Chen
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  2. Long Zhang
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  3. Cheng Zhu
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Correspondence to Cheng Zhu.

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Communicated by S. Srivastava.

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Chen, Z., Zhang, L. & Zhu, C. Exogenous nitric oxide mediates alleviation of mercury toxicity by promoting auxin transport in roots or preventing oxidative stress in leaves of rice seedlings. Acta Physiol Plant 37, 194 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-015-1931-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-015-1931-7

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