NaCl-induced oxidative damage in the cyanobacterium Anabaena doliolum

Results obtained with graded concentrations of NaCl (20–200 mM) show decrease in the chlorophyll ‘a’ contents of Anabaena with increasing concentration of NaCl except at extremely low concentration of NaCl (5–20 mM). The rate of Hill activity and oxygen evolution are found to be stimulated by lower concentrations of NaCl, but not at higher concentrations of NaCl. Results have demonstrated that the O₂ evolution process is relatively more sensitive to NaCl stress than the Hill activity. Further, the results show NaCl induced an increase in the rate of RNO bleaching and loss of total thiol (-SH) contents. Taken together, these results suggest a NaCl-induced general oxidative stress. Results on the effect of oxygen radical quenchers reveal a predominant role of singlet oxygen in the NaCl-induced general oxidative stress as evident from a higher quenching effect of sodium azide than formate and histidine on the rate of RNO bleaching in Anabaena cells. However, the rate of lipid peroxidation and SOD activity show a declining pattern in response to increasing concentrations of NaCl. There is the possibility of a NaCl-induced decrease in the rate of lipid peroxidation when the SOD activity is also lower. But the NaCl-induced decline in the SOD activity does suggest that symptoms of general oxidative stress at elevated levels of NaCl are apparently owing to collapse of intracellular defense of the cells against the toxic oxygen radicals, not because of the higher rate of photosynthetic activity. Received: 15 August 2001/Accepted: 20 September 2001