• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2001

Oxidative stress is one of the major limiting factor in plant productivity. Reactive oxygens species (ROS) generated during metabolic processes damage cellular functions and consequently lead to disease, senescence and cell death. Plants have evolved an efficient defense system by which the ROS is scavenged by antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). Attempts to reduce oxidative damages under the stress conditions have included the manipulation of 갠 scavenging enzymes by gene transfer technology. Increased SOD activities of transgenic plants lead to increased resistance against oxidative stresses derived from methyl viologen (MV), and from photooxidative damage caused by high light and low temperature. Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing APX showed reduced damage following either MV treatment of photooxidative treatment. Overexpression of glutathion reductase (GR) leads to increase in pool of ascorbate and GSH, known as small antioxidant molecules. These results indicate through overexpression of enzymes involved in ROS-scavenging could maintain or improve the plant productivities under environment stress condition. In this study, the rational approaches to develop stress-tolerant plants by gene manipulation of antioxidant enzymes will be introduced to provide solutions for the global food and environmental problems in the $21^\textrm{st}$ century.

• ALGAE
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.131-147
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• 2013

Major progress has been made in the past decade towards understanding of the biosynthesis of red carotenoid astaxanthin and its roles in stress response while exploiting microalgae-based astaxanthin as a potent antioxidant for human health and as a coloring agent for aquaculture applications. In this review, astaxanthin-producing green microalgae are briefly summarized with Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella zofingiensis recognized to be the most popular astaxanthin-producers. Two distinct pathways for astaxanthin synthesis along with associated cellular, physiological, and biochemical changes are elucidated using H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis as the model systems. Interactions between astaxanthin biosynthesis and photosynthesis, fatty acid biosynthesis and enzymatic defense systems are described in the context of multiple lines of defense mechanisms working in concert against photooxidative stress. Major pros and cons of mass cultivation of H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis in phototrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic culture modes are analyzed. Recent progress in genetic engineering of plants and microalgae for astaxanthin production is presented. Future advancement in microalgal astaxanthin research will depend largely on genome sequencing of H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis and genetic toolbox development. Continuous effort along the heterotrophic-phototrophic culture mode could lead to major expansion of the microalgal astaxanthin industry.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2001

Cucumber leaves subjected to light chilling stress exhibit a preferential inactivation of photosystem(PS) I relative to PSII, resulting in the photoinhibition of photosynthesis. In light chilled cucumber leaves, Cu/Zn-Superoxide dismutase(SOD) is regarded as a primary target of the light chilling stress and its inactivation is closely related to the increased production of reactive oxygen species. In the present study, we further explored that inactivation of PSI in cucumber leaves is not a light chilling specific, but general to various oxidative stresses. Oxidative stress in cucumber leaves was induced by treatment of methylviologen(MV), a producer of reactive oxygen species in chloroplasts. MV treatment decreased the maximal photosynthetic O$_2$ evolution, resulting in the photoinhibition of photosynthesis. The photoinhibition of photosynthesis was attributable to the decline in PSI functionality determined in vivo by monitoring absorption changes around 820 nm. In addition, MV treatment inactivated both antioxidant enzymes Cu-Zn-superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase known sensitive to reactive oxygen species. From these results, we suggest that chloroplast antioxidant enzymes are the primary targets of photooxidative stress, followed by subsequent inactivation of PSI.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.254-259
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• 2013

The mechanisms of resistance to oxyfluorfen (OF) and paraquat (PQ) were investigated in rice plants. Examination of the concentration dependence of oxyfluorfen- or paraquat-induced increase in conductivity showed that conductivities in the OF- and PQ-treated leaf squares were increased with 0.1 ${\mu}M$ oxyfluorfen and 0.01 ${\mu}M$ paraquat and further increased with higher concentrations. The levels of conductivity were approximately 10-times higher in the PQ-treated plants than in the OF-treated plants, indicating that the PQ-treated plants suffered more severe photodynamic damage than the OF-treated plants. The photooxidative stress caused by foliar application of either 50 ${\mu}M$ oxyfluorfen or 100 ${\mu}M$ paraquat increased the enzyme activities of ascorbate peroxidase and peroxidase 1 day after the herbicide treatments and then further increased their enzyme activities 2 days after the treatments. The activities of catalase began to increase 2 days after the oxyfluorfen and paraquat treatments. These antioxidant enzymes appear to play an essential part of defense mechanisms against oxyfluorfen and paraquat. Our results demonstrate that paraquat caused more severe oxidative stress, as indicated by a greater change in conductivity, thereby resulting in greater increases in antioxidant responses in plants, compared with those of oxyfluorfen.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.309-313
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• 2000

To investigate the effects of different UV-B levels on growth and biochemical defense response in plants, cucumber plants were subjected to three levels of biologically effective ultraviolet-B $(UV-B_{BE})$ radiation [daily dose: 0.03 (No), 6.40 (Low) and $11.30\;(High)\;kJ{\cdot}m^{-2}$, $UV-B_{BE}$] in the growth chambers for 3 weeks during the early growth period. Enhanced UV-B radiation drastically decreased both dry weight and leaf area of cucumber. With increasing UV-B intensity, chlorophyll content was decreased, however the level of malondialdehyde was highly increased linearly. Total contents of ascorbic acid and glutathione were tended to increase by UV-B, while the ratios of dehydroascorbate/ascorbate and oxidized glutathione/reduced glutathione were significantly increased with increasing UV-B intensity in cucumber. All the enzyme activities investigated (superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, dehydroascorbate reductase, guaiacol peroxidase etc.) in cucumber were increased by the UV-B enhancement. These results suggested that enhanced UV-B irradiation caused photooxidative stress in cucumber plant and resulted in significant reduction in plant growth. Biochemical protection responses might be activated to prevent the leaves from damaging effects of oxidative stress generated by UV-B irradiation.