Abstract
Germination is a crucial event in plant lifecycle mediated by a complex hormonal crosstalk. In this study, we revealed an antagonistic interaction between phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellins in epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG)-retarded germination and early seedling growth in tomato. High concentrations of EGCG (0.5 mM and 1.0 mM) decelerated the seed germination and reduced the germination rate and biomass accumulation in seedlings. EGCG-induced inhibition in seedling growth was associated with oxidative stress and changes in antioxidant enzyme activity. Moreover, EGCG treatment increased the ABA content and decreased the GA3 content, leading to a significant reduction in the ratio of GA3/ABA in a dose-dependent manner. EGCG-induced changes in ABA and GA levels were attributed to the changes in expression levels of genes involved in their metabolism. Either exogenous GA application or endogenous ABA deficiency both alleviated EGCG-induced inhibition in early seedling growth. These results suggest that EGCG inhibits seed germination and early seedling growth by affecting the balance between ABA and GA in tomato. These findings are important to better understand the role of flavonoids in seed germination and their implications in controlling seed dormancy.
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Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31950410555); the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD1000800); the Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS-ASTIP-2014-TRICAAS); and Henan University of Science and Technology (HAUST) Research Start-up Fund for New Faculty (13480058). We are grateful to the Tomato Genetics Resource Center at the California University for tomato (Ailsa Craig and notabilis) seeds.
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GJA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. YL: Formal analysis, Investigation. AL: Supervision, Resources, Funding acquisition. SC: Supervision, Resources, Funding acquisition. XL: Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Resources, Funding acquisition, Project administration.
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Ahammed, G.J., Li, Y., Cheng, Y. et al. Abscisic Acid and Gibberellins Act Antagonistically to Mediate Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate-Retarded Seed Germination and Early Seedling Growth in Tomato. J Plant Growth Regul 39, 1414–1424 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-020-10089-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-020-10089-1