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Involvement of antioxidant defense system in chill hardening-induced chilling tolerance in Jatropha curcas seedlings

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Abstract

Jatropha curcas L. is a sustainable energy plant with great potential for biodiesel production, and low temperature is an important limiting factor for its distribution and production. In this present work, chill hardening-induced chilling tolerance and involvement of antioxidant defense system were investigated in J. curcas seedlings. The results showed that chill hardening at 10 or 12 °C for 1 and 2 days greatly lowered death rate and alleviated electrolyte leakage as well as accumulation of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) of J. curcas seedlings under severe chilling stress at 1 °C for 1–7 days, indicating that the chill hardening significantly improved chilling tolerance of J. curcas seedlings. Measurement of activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and glutathione reductase (GR), and the levels of the antioxidants ascorbic acid (AsA) and glutathione (GSH) showed the chill hardening at 12 °C for 2 days could obviously increase the activities of these antioxidant enzymes and AsA and GSH contents in the hardened seedlings. When the hardened and non-hardening (control) seedlings were subjected to severe chilling stress at 1 °C for 1–7 days, the chill-hardened seedlings generally maintained significantly higher activities of the antioxidant enzymes SOD, APX, CAT, POD, and GR, and content of the antioxidants AsA and GSH as well as ratio of the reduced antioxidants to total antioxidants [AsA/(AsA + DHA) and GSH/(GSH + GSSG)], when compared with the control without chill hardening. All above-mentioned results indicated that the chill hardening could enhance the chilling tolerance, and the antioxidant defense system plays an important role in the chill hardening-induced chilling tolerance in J. curcas seedlings.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

APX:

Ascorbate peroxidase

AsA:

Ascorbic acid

CAT:

Catalase

DHA:

Dehydroascorbate

DW:

Dry weight

GR:

Glutathione reductase

GSH:

Glutathione

GSSG:

Oxidized glutathione

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

NBT:

Nitroblue tetrazolium

POD:

Peroxidase

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by Key Grant of Education Department of Yunnan Province of China (ZD 2010004), Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province of China (2010ZC066).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Engineering Research Center of Sustainable Development and Utilization of Biomass Energy, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Biomass Energy and Environmental Biotechnology, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, 650092, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    Ping-Xing Ao, Zhong-Guang Li, Dong-Mei Fan & Ming Gong

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  1. Ping-Xing Ao
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  2. Zhong-Guang Li
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  3. Dong-Mei Fan
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  4. Ming Gong
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Correspondence to Ming Gong.

Additional information

Communicated by P. Sowinski.

P.-X. Ao and Z.-G. Li contributed equally to this work.

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Ao, PX., Li, ZG., Fan, DM. et al. Involvement of antioxidant defense system in chill hardening-induced chilling tolerance in Jatropha curcas seedlings. Acta Physiol Plant 35, 153–160 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-012-1058-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-012-1058-z

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