Glyphosate inhibition of ferric reductase activity in iron deficient sunflower roots

Iron (Fe) deficiency is increasingly being observed in cropping systems with frequent glyphosate applications. A likely reason for this is that glyphosate interferes with root uptake of Fe by inhibiting ferric reductase in roots required for Fe acquisition by dicot and nongrass species. This study investigated the role of drift rates of glyphosate (0.32, 0.95 or 1.89 mm glyphosate corresponding to 1, 3 and 6% of the recommended herbicidal dose, respectively) on ferric reductase activity of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) roots grown under Fe deficiency conditions. Application of 1.89 mm glyphosate resulted in almost 50% inhibition of ferric reductase within 6 h and complete inhibition 24 h after the treatment. Even at lower rates of glyphosate (e.g. 0.32 mm and 0.95 mm), ferric reductase was inhibited. Soluble sugar concentration and the NAD(P)H oxidizing capacity of apical roots were not decreased by the glyphosate applications. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the effects of glyphosate on ferric reductase activity. The nature of the inhibitory effect of glyphosate on ferric reductase could not be identified. Impaired ferric reductase could be a major reason for the increasingly observed Fe deficiency in cropping systems associated with widespread glyphosate usage.     

向日葵遗传转化研究进展

综述了PEG、基因枪和农杆菌介导的转化方法应用于向日葵遗传转化研究所取得的进展,并对影响向日葵遗传转化效率的因素和研究前景进行了探讨。     

How does the meristem of sunflower capitulum cope with tissue expansion and floret initiation? A quantitative analysis

The coordination between floret initiation and tissue expansion has been studied and quantified in the apical meristem of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) plants grown under different light availability. A method was developed to quantify tissue expansion in the meristem during floret initiation from measurements of meristem area, number of florets and primordium size. Initially, floret initiation and tissue expansion occurred simultaneously at the meristem surface. The duration of this phase remained unchanged across environments, whereas the rate of tissue expansion varied greatly. Floret initiation rate depended on meristem initial size and tissue-expansion rate. Thereafter, floret initiation continued without tissue expansion in the meristem, resulting in a rapid decrease of meristem area. A set of equations was proposed to predict floret initiation rate and floret number as a function of the rates of tissue expansion in the meristem before and during floret initiation. This formalism demonstrated the role of tissue expansion in determining the final number of florets, and provided a framework to analyse the response of floret initiation to genotype and environment.     

Wall extensibility during hypocotyl growth: A hypothesis to explain elastic-induced wall loosening

The physico-chemical nature of wall loosening of plants is still a matter of speculation. For a better understanding of the mechanistic principles in which polymer interactions may be affected during wall loosening, the rheological properties of sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) were investigated during white light (WL)- and auxin (IAA)induced growth changes. As rheological parameter, the capacity for elastic shrinkage of standard hypocotyl segments after release of turgor-mediated wall stress by freezing/thawing was studied (relative reversible length). Segment length remaining after shrinkage relative to turgid length has been designated as relative irreversible length. The following results were obtained: Temporary growth inhibition of in planta growing hypocotyls by WL is characterized by a temporary increase in relative irreversible length and a complementary decrease of relative reversible length. Analogously, but with opposite effect, IAA-induced growth of hypocotyl segments is characterized by a decrease in relative irreversible length and an increase in relative reversible length; i.e., an increased capacity to shrink elastically per standard length. The changes of the two wall-rheological parameters follow similar principles in hypocotyls grown in planta and ex planta and independent of whether the growth rate was changed by either WL conditions or IAA concentration. As suggested earlier (Edelmann 1994) the results indicate that growth may be regulated by wall loosening mechanisms which initially result in elastic (reversible) wall extension. To render this extension irreversible, it must be fixed subsequently. The finding that loosened walls also become shorter in irreversible length per standard length once tensional stress is released is new. It represents pivotal evidence for an initially elastic-induced wall loosening.     

植物螯合肽合成酶的研究进展

植物螯合肽（phytochelatins,PCs）在植物解除重金属的毒性方面具有重要作用,其结构为（γ-Glu—Cys）n-Gly（n=2—11）,它不是基因的编码产物,而是在植物螯合肽合成酶（phytochelatin synthase,PCS）的催化下以谷胱甘肽（glutathione,GSH）为底物合成的。PCS能够被金属离子激活,高度保守的N-端是催化结构域,而其C-端则是多变的。本文就PCS的结构,功能与催化机制以及PCS的最新研究进行了介绍。     

Response to salinity in the homoploid hybrid species Helianthus paradoxus and its progenitors H. annuus and H. petiolaris

To contribute to the understanding of ecological differentiation in speciation, we compared salinity responses of the halophytic diploid hybrid species Helianthus paradoxus and its glycophytic progenitors Helianthus annuus and Helianthus petiolaris. Plants of three populations of each species were subjected to a control (nonsaline) and three salinity treatments, including one simulating the ion composition in the habitat of H. paradoxus. Relative to the control, saline treatments led to a 17% biomass increase in H. paradoxus while its progenitors suffered 19-33% productivity reductions and only in H. paradoxus, leaf contents of potassium, calcium, and magnesium were strongly reduced. Under all treatments, H. paradoxus allocated more resources to roots, was more succulent, and had higher leaf contents of sodium (> 200 mmol l(-1) tissue water) and sulfur than its progenitor species. These results suggest that salt tolerance and thus speciation of H. paradoxus is related to sodium replacing potassium, calcium and magnesium as vacuolar osmotica. The evolutionary and genetic mechanisms likely to be involved are discussed.     

Chemical changes and O2˙− production in thylakoid membranes under water stress

Sunflower seedlings ( Helianthus annuus cv. Isabel) subjected to a moderate level of water stress showed a reduced growth and a 0. 1 MPa osmotic adjustment came into play. Thylakoid membranes isolated from stressed leaves showed decreased chlorophyll (Chl) and protein contents but the Chl al /Chl b and protein/Chl ratios were unchanged. Water stress caused a preferential hydrolysis in thylakoid proteins: the hydrophilic to hydrophobic protein ratio increased from 0. 8 in the control to 4. 5 in the stressed plants. However, the degree of unsaturation was unchanged and the electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements did not show an increased level of O₂^.-radical production by photosynthetic membranes.     

Leaf expansion as related to plant water availability in a wild and a cultivated sunflower

This study aimed to determine if two species of sunflower, Helianthus annus L. cv. Hysun 31 (cultivated, single-stemmed genotype) and Helianthus petiolaris Nuttall ssp. fallax (wild, many-hranched genotype) differed in the response of leaf growth to water deficits. Earlier published studies, concerned only with H. annuus, failed to reveal differences in the response of sunflowers to water stress. Plants of the two species were paired in large containers of soil and grown under high radiation in a glasshouse. One batch of plants was irrigated and the other allowed to dry so that predawn leaf water potentials declined at an average of 0.072 MPa day^?1. The dry batch was rewatered when predawn leaf water potentials reached ?0.85 MPa. The stress imposed was sufficient to curtail leaf growth so that plants in the dry treatment had only 60% of the leaf area of irrigated plants at the onset of rewatering. Both species were affected by stress to the same relative extent, though their leaf areas at this stage differed 7-fold. Both genotypes also recovered to the same degree in the long term, finally having leaf areas and gross dry matter distribution patterns which were indistinguishable from plants which were irrigated throughout. However, water stress resulted in different distribution patterns of leaf area: H. annuus produced larger leaves at the top of its single stem which compensated for the reduced area in lower leaves, whereas H. petiolaris compensated in the leaves on its branches. Leaves which emerged after the time of stress were most able to compensate in area subsequently. For example, those leaves of H. annuus which emerged one week after stress-relief were more than three times larger than comparable leaves on plants irrigated continuously. Leaf expansion rates were affected earlier in the stress cycle than leaf conductance in H. annuus, but not in H. petiolaris. But as with other plant responses to water stress, the differences between the two species were small.     

Generation of white mold disease-resistant sunflower plants expressing human lysozyme gene

Sunflower plants were transformed via co-cultivation of previously bombarded hypocotyl explants with Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring the plasmid pNGL that contains the human lysozyme gene. The transformed shoots were selected using kanamycin and regenerated plants were analyzed using histochemical β-glucuronidase assay. Southern, Western and Northern blot analyses indicated the transfer, expression and stable integration of the foreign DNA into the sunflower genome. Resistance against the phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, which causes white mold disease, was confirmed using a phytopathogenic test and microscopic observation of the infection process.