Abstract
Although it has been documented that plants generate isothiocyanates (ITCs) through the glucosinolate-myrosinase system to defend against biotic stresses, the roles of ITCs in defending against abiotic stresses have scarcely been studied. Here, we report that exogenously applied ITCs enhance the heat tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana. Pre-administration of phenethyl ITC to Arabidopsis plants mitigated growth inhibition after heat stress at 55 °C for 1 h. Although methyl ITC and allyl ITC also tended to reduce the growth inhibition that the same heat treatment caused, the reduction effects were weaker. The expression levels of heat shock protein 70 genes in Arabidopsis were elevated after phenethyl ITC treatment. These results suggest that ITCs may act as heat-tolerance enhancers in plants.
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Abbreviations
- DAG:
-
Days after germination
- GB:
-
Glycinebetaine
- HSP:
-
Heat shock protein
- ITC:
-
Isothiocyanate
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
- SA:
-
Salicylic acid
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid (No. 21658025) for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.
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Hara, M., Harazaki, A. & Tabata, K. Administration of isothiocyanates enhances heat tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant Growth Regul 69, 71–77 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-012-9748-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-012-9748-5