The Activity of Principal Antioxidant Enzymes and the Content of Metabolites in Dormancy Breaking and Germination of Davidia involucrate Seeds

The principal antioxidant enzymes and metabolites were reported to play a very important role in eliminating reactive oxygen species and maintaining vigour in dormancy breaking and germination of Davidia involucrate seeds. However, the researches on the change laws of content and activity are seldom. In present study, we chose Davidia involucrate seeds which collected from the Mabian Nature Reserve as experimental materials, and then investigated the activity of principal antioxidant enzymes and the content of metabolites in dormancy breaking and germination of the seeds. The results showed that the activity of peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR) exhibited an increasing trend but the activity of total antioxidant capacity (T AOC) decreased greatly in early stage of stratification. Comparing with the decrease of protein (Pr), the content of ascorbic acid (Vc) and free amino acid (FAA) significantly increased. In middle stage of stratification, the activity of SOD and T AOC increased firstly and then decreased at last. The activity of POD always maintained a higher level although the activity of CAT and GR decreased greatly. In terminal stage of stratification, the activities of POD, GR, T AOC and the content of FAA and Vc exhibited an increasing trend, while the activity of CAT and SOD maintained a low level. In germination stage, the activity of all antioxidant enzymes and the content of Vc and FAA were increased obviously (P < 005), but the content of the protein was decreased. These results suggested that Davidia involucrata seeds may have a good ability to efficiently remove the effects on cell structure caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) by keeping the interaction of antioxidant enzymes and metabolites successively during the period of dormancy breaking and germination. This adjustment helps to ensure the germination of seeds by acceleration the post ripening in morphological and physiological of progresses.