Abstract
Abscisic acid (ABA) induces formation of a set of proteins in the xerophilic liverwortExormotheca holstii. Some of them have immunological properties similar to the dehydrins of desiccated corn embryos and the desiccation-related proteins of Craterostigma plantagineum. The fluctuations of endogenous ABA during cycles of desiccation and rehydration seem to be sufficiently high to indicate a role for ABA as a stress hormone and there by as an endogenous inductor of stress-related protein synthesis. Desiccation tolerance disappears when thalli are cultivated for a longer period under well-watered conditions; such thalli are not able to increase stress-dependent ABA biosynthesis sufficiently, or to form the desiccation-related proteins unless they are treated with external ABA. The rehydrated thalli cannot recover from a rapid water loss, while ABA-treated, non-hardened thalli regain their photosynthetic activity within two hours.
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Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
abscisic acid
- Fo :
-
initial fluorescence yield
- Fm :
-
maximum fluorescence yield
- QA :
-
primary quinone receptor of PSII
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We are grateful to Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support (SFB 251, TP3, Graduiertenkolleg Ka 456/5-1), to Prof. E.W. Weiler (Lehrstuhl für Pflanzenphysiologie, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany), Dr. D. Bartels (Max-Planck-Institut für Züchtungsforschung, Köln, Germany) and Dr. T.J. Close (Department of Botany and Plant Science, University of California, Riverside, Calif., USA) for generous gifts of immunochemicals for ABA assay and antibodies 6–19, 37-31 and Rb-2b, to Miss. B. Dierich for skilful technical assistance and to Mrs. E.M. Arnold, Omaruru, Namibia for the generous supply of Exormotheca thalli.
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Hellwege, E.M., Dietz, KJ., Volk, O.H. et al. Abscisic acid and the induction of desiccation tolerance in the extremely xerophilic liverwort Exormotheca holstii . Planta 194, 525–531 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00714466
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00714466