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Effects of exogenous glucose on seed germination and antioxidant capacity in wheat seedlings under salt stress

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Abstract

Glucose (Glc) is an essential signaling molecule that controls plant development and gene expression, but little is known about its role in salt stress resistance on seed germination and plant growth. Here we report the effects of exogenous Glc on wheat seed germination and seedling growth under salt stress. The treatments used were 0 and 200 mM NaCl solutions supplemented with each of four Glc concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.5 and 50 mM. The results showed that salt alone significantly inhibited seeds germination and reduced the growth of wheat seedlings. Addition of exogenous Glc in the salt solution attenuated the salt stress effects in a dose-dependent manner of Glc, as indicated by enhancement of the growth of celoeptile and radicle. Glc addition also showed significant reversal of salt stress in chlorophyll decay, water loss, dry weight, root length and accumulation of proline. The Glc-induced salt stress resistance was associated with enhanced K+ and K+/Na+ ratio in leaves, and activated antioxidant enzymes activities, thus decreasing thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents. As our knowledge this is the first report to show the protective effects of exogenous Glc against salt-induced oxidative damage in wheat seedlings associating with the evidences of ion homeostasis in cells and a better antioxidant system.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Gongshe Hu for the critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences/Hebei Provincial Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding, Shijiazhuang, 050031, Hebei, China

    Mengyun Hu, Yingjun Zhang & Hui Li

  2. National Millet Improvement Center of China, Institute of Millet Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050031, Hebei, China

    Zhigang Shi

  3. The Research center of Agricultural Resource, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050021, China

    Zhengbin Zhang

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  1. Mengyun Hu
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  2. Zhigang Shi
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  3. Zhengbin Zhang
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  4. Yingjun Zhang
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  5. Hui Li
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Correspondence to Hui Li.

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Hu, M., Shi, Z., Zhang, Z. et al. Effects of exogenous glucose on seed germination and antioxidant capacity in wheat seedlings under salt stress. Plant Growth Regul 68, 177–188 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-012-9705-3

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