Melatonin pretreatment improves vanadium stress tolerance of watermelon seedlings by reducing vanadium concentration in the leaves and regulating melatonin biosynthesis and antioxidant-related gene expression

Vanadium (V) is an important heavy metal with ubiquitous presence in the Earth’s crust, but limited information is available as to its effect on plants and management strategies. Melatonin is a widely studied biomolecule; it acts as an antioxidant and a signaling molecule that enhances the abiotic s...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Journal of plant physiology 2018-01, Vol.220, p.115-127
Hauptverfasser: Nawaz, Muhammad Azher, Jiao, Yanyan, Chen, Chen, Shireen, Fareeha, Zheng, Zuhua, Imtiaz, Muhammad, Bie, Zhilong, Huang, Yuan
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Vanadium (V) is an important heavy metal with ubiquitous presence in the Earth’s crust, but limited information is available as to its effect on plants and management strategies. Melatonin is a widely studied biomolecule; it acts as an antioxidant and a signaling molecule that enhances the abiotic stress tolerance of plants. Melatonin improves copper, zinc, and cadmium tolerance in plants. In this study, we investigated the response of watermelon seedlings to V stress and the potential role of melatonin in enhancing V stress tolerance of watermelon seedlings. The results showed that seedlings pretreated with melatonin (0.1μM) exposed to V (50mg/L) had a higher relative chlorophyll content (SPAD index), photosynthetic assimilation, and plant growth compared with non-melatonin pretreated seedlings. Melatonin pretreatment lowered leaf and stem V concentrations by reducing V transport from root to shoot. Melatonin pretreatment enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and reduced the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content of watermelon seedlings, by regulating melatonin biosynthesis and gene expression for superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione S-transferase. So far as we know, these results are the first evidence that melatonin improves plant growth of watermelon seedlings under vanadium stress conditions. Considering these observations, melatonin can be utilized to reduce the availability of V to plants, and improve plant growth and V stress tolerance.
ISSN:0176-1617
1618-1328
DOI:10.1016/j.jplph.2017.11.003