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Ethephon mitigates nickel stress by modulating antioxidant system, glyoxalase system and proline metabolism in Indian mustard

Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants volume 26, pages 1201–1213 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The role of ethylene (through application of ethephon) in the regulation of nickel (Ni) stress tolerance was investigated in this study. Ethephon at concentration of 200 µl l−1 was applied to mustard (Brassica juncea) plants grown without and with 200 mg kg−1 soil Ni to study the increased growth traits, biochemical attributes, photosynthetic efficiency, nutrients content, activities of antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione peroxidase, glyoxalase systems and enhanced the proline metabolism. In the absence of ethephon, Ni increased oxidative stress with a concomitant decrease in photosynthesis, growth and nutrients content. However, application of ethephon positively increased growth traits, photosynthetic parameters, nutrients content and also elevated the generation of antioxidants enzymes and glyoxalase systems, proline production to combat oxidative stress. Plants water relations and cellular homeostasis were maintained through increased photosynthetic efficiency and proline production. This signifies the role of ethylene in mediating Ni tolerance via regulating proline production and photosynthetic capacity. Ethephon can be used as an exogenous supplement on plants to confer Ni tolerance. The results can be exploited to develop tolerance in plants via gene editing technology encoding enzymes responsible for proline synthesis, antioxidant defence, glyoxalase systems and photosynthetic effectiveness.

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Acknowledgements

MIRK gratefully acknowledges the award of MANF [F.40-3 (M/S)/2009 (SA-III/MANF)] by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India. MFA and MTR acknowledge the generous support from the Researcher Supporting Project number (RSP-2019-122) King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    M. Iqbal R. Khan, Badar Jahan & Nafees A. Khan

  2. Department of Botany, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, 110062, India

    M. Iqbal R. Khan

  3. Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Mohamed F. AlAjmi & Md Tabish Rehman

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  1. M. Iqbal R. Khan
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  2. Badar Jahan
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  3. Mohamed F. AlAjmi
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  4. Md Tabish Rehman
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  5. Nafees A. Khan
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Contributions

MIRK and NAK conceptualized the study and wrote the manuscript; MIRK and BJ conducted the experiments and collected the data, MIRK, BJ, MFA, MTR analyses the data and helped in preparing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to M. Iqbal R. Khan.

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Khan, M.I.R., Jahan, B., AlAjmi, M.F. et al. Ethephon mitigates nickel stress by modulating antioxidant system, glyoxalase system and proline metabolism in Indian mustard. Physiol Mol Biol Plants 26, 1201–1213 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-020-00806-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-020-00806-1

Keywords

  • Antioxidant enzymes
  • Ethylene
  • Glyoxalase systems
  • Nickel
  • Proline