Inhibition of NO Biosynthetic Activities during Rehydration of Ramalina farinacea Lichen Thalli Provokes Increases in Lipid Peroxidation

[EN] Lichens are poikilohydrous symbiotic associations between a fungus, photosynthetic partners, and bacteria. They are tolerant to repeated desiccation/rehydration cycles and adapted to anhydrobiosis. Nitric oxide (NO) is a keystone for stress tolerance of lichens; during lichen rehydration, NO limits free radicals and lipid peroxidation but no data on the mechanisms of its synthesis exist. The aim of this work is to characterize the synthesis of NO in the lichen Ramalina farinacea using inhibitors of nitrate reductase (NR) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS), tungstate, and NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), respectively. Tungstate suppressed the NO level in the lichen and caused an increase in malondialdehyde during rehydration in the hyphae of cortex and in phycobionts, suggesting that a plant-like NR is involved in the NO production. Specific activity of NR in R. farinacea was 91 U/mg protein, a level comparable to those in the bryophyte Physcomitrella patens and Arabidopsis thaliana. L-NAME treatment did not suppress the NO level in the lichens. On the other hand, NADPH-diaphorase activity cytochemistry showed a possible presence of a NOS-like activity in the microalgae where it is associated with cytoplasmatic vesicles. These data provide initial evidence that NO synthesis in R. farinacea involves NR. This research was funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO - FEDER, Spain) (CGL2016-79158-P) and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA, Excellence in Research, Spain) (PROMETEOIII/2017/039). Expósito, JR.; Martín San Román, S.; Barreno, E.; Reig-Armiñana, J.; García-Breijo, F.; Catalá, M. (2019). Inhibition of NO Biosynthetic Activities during Rehydration of Ramalina farinacea Lichen Thalli Provokes Increases in Lipid Peroxidation. Plants. 8(7):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8070189 Kranner, I., Beckett, R., Hochman, A., & Nash, T. H. (2008). Desiccation-Tolerance in Lichens: A Review. The Bryologist, 111(4), 576-593. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-111.4.576 Kranner, I., Cram, W. J., Zorn, M., Wornik, S., Yoshimura, I., Stabentheiner, E., & Pfeifhofer, H. W. (2005). Antioxidants and photoprotection in a lichen as compared with its isolated symbiotic partners. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(8), 3141-3146. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407716102 WILSON, I. D., NEILL, S. J., & HANCOCK, J. T. (2008). Nitric oxide synthesis and signalling in plants. Plant, Cell & Environment, 31(5), 622-631. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3040.2007.01761.x Meilhoc, E.