Abstract
Floral malformation is the most destructive disease in mangoes. To date, the etiology of this disease has not been resolved. There are indications that stress-stimulated ethylene production might be responsible for the disease. Putrescine mediates various physiological processes for normal functioning and cellular metabolism. Here, the effect of putrescine in concentration ranging from 10−1 to 10−3 M was evaluated on disease incidence during mango flowering seasons of 2012 and 2013. In a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study, putrescine (10−2 M)-treated malformed floral buds bloomed into opened flowers with separated sepals and/or petals like healthy, whereas the untreated (control) malformed buds remained deformed. Further, malformed flowers recovered upon putrescine treatment, displaying clearly bilobed anthers, enclosing a large number of normal pollen grains and functional ovary with broad stigmatic surface as compared to control. The present findings provide the first report to demonstrate the role of putrescine in reducing various adverse effects of stress ethylene via decelerating the higher pace of its biosynthesis. It stabilizes the normal morphology, development, and functions of malformed reproductive organs to facilitate successful pollination, fertilization, and, thereby, fruit set in mango flowers. However, putrescine–ethylene-mediated cell signaling network, involving various genes to trigger the response, which regulates a wide range of developmental and physiological processes leading to normal cell physiology, needs to be investigated further.
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Acknowledgments
AS is thankful to Dr. C.P. Singh for the financial assistance. GB is grateful to MPS’s laboratory in the Department of Anatomy, College of Veterinary Sciences for carrying out this work. MWA is thankful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for funding under DST fast track scheme of young scientist. Work on signal transduction and plant stress signaling in NT’s laboratory is partially supported by DST and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. The authors are also thankful to Dr. Renu Tuteja, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India, for her help in grammatically formatting the manuscript.
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Singh, A., Ansari, M.W., Rani, V. et al. First evidence of putrescine involvement in mitigating the floral malformation in mangoes: A scanning electron microscope study. Protoplasma 251, 1255–1261 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-014-0611-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-014-0611-6