Plant Growth Regulation

, Volume 72, Issue 3, pp 269–277 | Cite as

The regulatory role of riboflavin in the drought tolerance of tobacco plants depends on ROS production

  • Benliang Deng
  • Xuehui Jin
  • Yang Yang
  • Zhiwei Lin
  • Yaling Zhang
Original paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is required for normal plant growth and development. Previous studies have shown that riboflavin application can enhance pathogen resistance in plants. Here, we investigated the role of riboflavin in increasing drought tolerance (10 % PEG6000 treatment) in plants. We treated 4 week-old tobacco plants with five different levels of riboflavin (0, 4, 20, 100 and 500 μM) for 5 days and examined their antioxidant responses and levels of drought tolerance. Compared with the controls, low and moderate levels of riboflavin treatment enhanced drought tolerance in the tobacco plants, whereas higher concentrations of riboflavin (500 μM) impaired drought tolerance. Further analysis revealed that plants treated with 500 μM riboflavin accumulated higher levels of ROS (O2 − and H2O2) and lipid peroxide than the control plants or plants treated with low levels of riboflavin. Consistent with this observation, the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathione reductase (GR) were higher in plants treated with low or moderate (4, 20 and 100 μM) levels of riboflavin compared with the control. We also found that chlorophyll degraded rapidly in control and 500 μM riboflavin-treated plants under drought stress conditions. In addition, the survival times of the riboflavin-treated plants were significantly modified by treatment with reduced glutathione, a well-known ROS scavenger, under drought stress conditions. Thus, riboflavin-mediated ROS production may determine the effects of riboflavin on drought tolerance in tobacco plants.

Keywords

Antioxidant enzyme Drought Hydrogen peroxide Nicotiana benthamiana Riboflavin 

Abbreviation

ROS

Reactive oxygen species

O2−

Superoxide anion

H2O2

Hydrogen peroxide

SOD

Superoxide dismutase

CAT

Catalase

APX

Ascorbate peroxidase

GR

Glutathione reductase

TBARS

Thiobarbituric acids reactive substance

FMN

Flavin monophosphate

FAD

Flavin adenine dinucleotide

GSH

Reduced glutathione

GSSG

Oxidized glutathione

AsA

Reduced ascorbate

DHA

Oxidized ascorbate

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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Grant of Scientific Research Fund of Heilongjiang Provincial Key Project GA06C101-01 and Scientific Research Fund of Heilongjiang Land Reclamation Bureau Key Project HNKXIV-06-03B, HNKXIVZD-017 and HNK11A-05-10. We also should give our thanks to Prof. Hansong Dong, the Father of riboflavin in China, for his helps in this work.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Benliang Deng
    • 1
  • Xuehui Jin
    • 1
  • Yang Yang
    • 1
  • Zhiwei Lin
    • 1
  • Yaling Zhang
    • 1
  1. 1.Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of AgronomyHeilongjiang Bayi Agricultural UniversityDaqingChina

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