Biologia Plantarum

, 55:788 | Cite as

Paraquat pretreatment alters antioxidant enzyme activity and protects chloroplast ultrastructure in heat-stressed cucumber leaves

  • Y. Gao
  • Y. -K. Guo
  • A. -H. Dai
  • W. -J. Sun
  • J. -G. Bai
Brief Communication
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Cucumis sativus L. seedlings were pretreated 1 h with 10 μM paraquat (PQ) and then were subjected to normal (25/18 °C) or elevated (42/38 °C) temperature to investigate whether PQ can protect plants against heat stress. Heat stress inhibited fresh and dry masses of the second leaf, root dry mass and shoot fresh mass. In leaves, the stress disintegrated membranes of 84.97 % chloroplasts and elevated contents of malondialdehyde, superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide. In contrast, PQ pretreatment altered antioxidant activities in leaves, even after PQ was rinsed off before seedlings were exposed to different temperatures. Under heat stress, PQ pretreatment improved plant growth, decreased percentage of abnormal chloroplasts (53.03 %) and reduced contents of malonaldehyde, superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide due to increased activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, guaiacol peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, monodehydroascorbate reductase, dehydroascorbate reductase and glutathione reductase.

Additional key words

antioxidant enzymes Cucumis sativus malondialdehyde reactive oxygen species 

Abbreviations

APX

ascorbate peroxidase

CAT

catalase

DHAR

dehydroascorbate reductase

GPX

guaiacol peroxidase

GR

glutathione reductase

GSH-Px

glutathione peroxidase

MDA

malondialdehyde

MDHAR

monodehydroascorbate reductase

PQ

paraquat

ROS

reactive oxygen species

SOD

superoxide dismutase

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Y. Gao
    • 1
  • Y. -K. Guo
    • 1
  • A. -H. Dai
    • 1
  • W. -J. Sun
    • 1
  • J. -G. Bai
    • 1
  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life SciencesShandong Agricultural UniversityTai’an, ShandongP.R. China

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