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Transcriptional differences in gene families of the ascorbate–glutathione cycle in wheat during mild water deficit

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Abstract

When comparing the responses of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes, the drought-tolerant Plainsman V and the drought-sensitive Cappelle Desprez, to reduced amounts of irrigation water, we found differences in ascorbate metabolism: both ascorbate oxidation and transcription levels of enzymes processing ascorbate were changed. Relative transcript levels of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) isoenzymes, predicted to localize in distinct subcellular organelles, showed different transcriptional changes in the two genotypes. Among APX coding mRNAs, expression levels of two cytosolic (cAPX I, II) and a thylakoid-bound (tAPX) variants increased significantly in Plainsman V while a cytosolic (cAPX I) and a stromal (sAPX II) APX coding transcripts were found to be higher in Cappelle Desprez after a 4-week-long water-deficit stress. Examining the MDARs, two cytosolic isoforms (cMDAR I, II) displayed significant up-regulation of mRNA levels in the sensitive genotype, whereas only one of them (cMDAR II) did in the tolerant cultivar. We found an up-regulated chloroplastic DHAR (chlDHAR) mRNA only in the sensitive Cappelle Desprez. However, increased expression levels of a cytosolic GR (cGR) and a chloroplastic GR (chlGR) were detected only in the tolerant Plainsman V. After 4 weeks of reduced irrigation, a significantly lower ascorbate/dehydroascorbate ratio was detected in leaves of the sensitive Cappelle Desprez than in the tolerant Plainsman V. Our results indicate that more robust transcription of ascorbate-based detoxification machinery may prevent an adverse shift of the cellular redox balance.

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Abbreviations

APX:

Ascorbate peroxidase

AsA:

Ascorbic acid

DHAR:

Dehydroascorbate reductase

DHAsA:

Dehydroascorbic acid

GR:

Glutathione reductase

GSH:

Glutathione

MDAR:

Monodehydroascorbate reductase

ORF:

Open reading frame

P5CS:

l-Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase

TA:

Transcript assembly

TBARS:

Thiobarbituric acid reacting substances

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Acknowledgments

We thank Krisztina Talpas and Györgyi Sándor for technical assistance, Mátyás Cserháti for grammatical corrections of this manuscript. Special thanks to Dr. László Cseuz (Cereal Research Non-Profit Ltd., Szeged, Hungary) for providing seeds for the experiments. This work was supported by the grants of the Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology (NKFP 4_064_04 Wheat Consortium and NAP-BIO 2006ALAP3-01435/06).

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  1. Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BRC), Temesvári krt. 62, 6726, Szeged, Hungary

    Maria Sečenji, Éva Hideg, Attila Bebes & János Györgyey

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  1. Maria Sečenji
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Correspondence to János Györgyey.

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Communicated by E. Guiderdoni.

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Sečenji, M., Hideg, É., Bebes, A. et al. Transcriptional differences in gene families of the ascorbate–glutathione cycle in wheat during mild water deficit. Plant Cell Rep 29, 37–50 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-009-0796-x

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