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Effect of salt treatment on the glucosinolate-myrosinase system in Thellungiella salsuginea

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Abstract

Background and aims

Glucosinolates are specialized plant metabolites derived from amino acids. Found in many important crop species (e.g., oilseed rape, broccoli and cabbage), glucosinolates and their degradation products have important roles in plant defense and interactions with the environment. The objective of this research was to study the effects of salt stress on the glucosinolate-myrosinase system in Thellungiella halophila, which has been characterized as a model organism for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance in plants.

Methods

In this study, Thellungiella plants were transferred into 1/2 Hoagland’s solution containing 200 mM, 300 mM, 400 mM, or 500 mM NaCl for salinity stress at three different growth stages: (1) the young vegetative stage, (2) the late older rosette stage prior to the initiation of bolting, and (3) the early bolting stage. We analyzed the glucosinolate-myrosinase system in different organs and developmental stages of Thellungiella salsuginea under salt stress.

Results

NaCl treatment caused a significant variation in the patterns of aliphatic, aromatic, and indole glucosinolate concentrations, resulting in varying levels of total glucosinolates in different organs at three different developmental stages. Although the major class of glucosinolates in different organs varied, increased concentrations of glucosinolates were observed under certain salt conditions. Myrosinase activity was also measured, and statistical analysis clearly indicated no synergetic effect between myrosinase activity and glucosinolate levels. The functional implications of glucosinolate metabolism under salt stress conditions are discussed.

Conclusions

In the present study, salt stress had a significant effect on glucosinolate levels and myrosinase activity in Thellungiella at different growth stages. The findings indicate that salt-induced increases in glucosinolate content may be involved in the salt stress response of Thellungiella, but the effects of salinity on glucosinolate biosynthesis and metabolism deserve further attention.

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Abbreviations

1MOI3M:

1-methoxy-3-indolylmethylglucosinolate

2PE:

2-phenylethylglucosinolate

3MSOP:

3-methylsulfinylpropylglucosinolate

3MTP:

3-methylthiopropylglucosinolate

4MOI3M:

4-methoxy-3-indolylmethylglucosinolate

10MSD:

10-methylsulfinyldecylglucosinolate

I3M:

3-indolylmethylglucosinolate

FW:

Fresh Weight

HPLC:

High Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Lixin Li for helpful advice about the salt stress test as well as Yinan Zhao, Moyang Wang, Lu Shi, and Yibo Cao for preparation of the plant material. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DL10BA18), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31170368 and No. 31070351), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (2011M500054), the Heilongjiang Province Foundation for Returned Scholars (LC2011C05) and the Postdoctoral of Heilongjiang Province of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alkali Soil Natural Environmental Science Center, Northeast Forestry University/Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration in Oil Field, Ministry of Education, Harbin, 150040, People’s Republic of China

    Qiuying Pang, Jing Guo, Yazhou Chen, Lei Zhang, Minghui Fei, Shaojing Jin, Mengsha Li, Yang Wang & Xiufeng Yan

  2. Department of Biology, UF Genetics Institute, and Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Sixue Chen

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  1. Qiuying Pang
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  2. Jing Guo
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Correspondence to Xiufeng Yan.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Timothy J. Flowers.

Q. Pang and J. Guo contributed equally to this work.

The Shandong ecotype from the North Eastern coast of China, which is most commonly investigated in the laboratories, has been cited as T. halophila but close inspection indicates that it belongs in fact to T. salsuginea.

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Pang, Q., Guo, J., Chen, S. et al. Effect of salt treatment on the glucosinolate-myrosinase system in Thellungiella salsuginea . Plant Soil 355, 363–374 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-1108-0

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