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Heavy-metal stress induced accumulation of chitinase isoforms in plants

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Abstract

Plant chitinases belong to so-called pathogenesis related proteins and have mostly been detected in plants exposed to phytopathogenic viruses, bacteria or fungi. A few studies revealed that they might also be involved in plant defence against heavy metals. This work was undertaken to monitor the accumulation of chitinases in a set of heavy-metal stressed plants and bring evidence on their involvement during this kind of stress. Roots of different plant species including Vicia faba cvs. Aštar and Piešťanský, Pisum sativum, Hordeum vulgare, Zea mays and Glycine max were exposed to different concentrations of lead (300 and 500 mg l−1 Pb2+), cadmium (100 and 300 mg l−1 Cd2+) and arsenic (50 and 100 mg l−1 As3+). In each case, the toxicity effects were reflected in root growth retardation to 80–10% of control values. The most tolerant were beans, most sensitive was barley. Extracts from the most stressed roots were further assayed for chitinase activity upon separation on polyacrylamide gels. Our data showed that in each combination of genotype and metal ion there were 2–5 different chitinase isoforms significantly responsive to toxic environment when compared with water-treated controls. This confirms that chitinases are components of plant defence against higher concentrations of heavy metals. In addition, accumulation of some isoforms in response to one but not to other metal ions suggests that these enzymes might also be involved in a more (metal) specific mechanism in affected plants and their biological role is more complex than expected.

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Abbreviations

HM:

Heavy metals

ID:

Integrated density

PAGE:

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

SDS:

Sodium dodecyl sulfate

TI:

Tolerance index

Tris:

Trishydroxymethylaminomethane

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant 2/5034/27 from the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA. The financial support for the stay of Ms. Bekesiova at ARC in Seibersdorf, Austria was provided by Austria Österreichischer Austauschdienst (ÖAD) and is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Ing. Jozef Štefanka (Plant Breeding Station in Horná Streda) for providing the seeds used within this work. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments that improved earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Botany and Genetics, Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra, Slovak Republic

    Beata Békésiová & Štefan Hraška

  2. Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 39 A, 950 07, Nitra, Slovak Republic

    Jana Libantová, Jana Moravčíková & Ildikó Matušíková

  3. Biogenetics/Natural resources, Austrian Research Centers GmbH, Seibersdorf, Seibersdorf, 2444, Austria

    Ildikó Matušíková

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  1. Beata Békésiová
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  2. Štefan Hraška
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Correspondence to Beata Békésiová.

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Békésiová, B., Hraška, Š., Libantová, J. et al. Heavy-metal stress induced accumulation of chitinase isoforms in plants. Mol Biol Rep 35, 579–588 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-007-9127-x

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