ROS production and protein oxidation as a novel mechanism for seed dormancy alleviation

doi:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03063.x

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Wiley InterScience

The Plant Journal

Volume 50 Issue 3, Pages 452 - 465

Published Online: 21 Mar 2007

Published in association with the Society for Experimental Biology

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ROS production and protein oxidation as a novel mechanism for seed dormancy alleviation

Krystyna Oracz ^1,2 , Hayat El-Maarouf Bouteau ² , Jill M. Farrant ³ , Keren Cooper ³ , Maya Belghazi ⁴ , Claudette Job ⁵ , Dominique Job ⁵ , Françoise Corbineau ² and Christophe Bailly ^2,*

¹ Department of Plant Physiology, Warsaw Agricultural University, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland,
² Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, EA 2388 Physiologie des Semences, Le Raphaël, Site d'Ivry, Boîte 152, 4 Place Jussieu, Paris F-75005 France,
³ Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag 7701 Rondebosch, South Africa,
⁴ Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6175, Service de Spectrométrie de Masse pour la Protéomique, Nouzilly, F-37380 France, and
⁵ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Bayer CropScience Joint Laboratory, Unité Mixte de Recherche 2847, Bayer CropScience, Lyon, F-69283 France

Correspondence to *(fax +33 1 44 27 59 27; e-mail bailly@ccr.jussieu.fr).

KEYWORDS

seed dormancy • after-ripening • reactive oxygen species • proteome analysis • carbonylation • sunflower

ABSTRACT

At harvest, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seeds are dormant and unable to germinate at temperatures below 15°C. Seed storage in the dry state, known as after-ripening, is associated with an alleviation of embryonic dormancy allowing subsequent germination at suboptimal temperatures. To identify the process by which dormancy is broken during after-ripening, we focused on the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in this phenomenon. After-ripening entailed a progressive accumulation of ROS, namely superoxide anions and hydrogen peroxide, in cells of embryonic axes. This accumulation, which was investigated at the cellular level by electron microscopy, occurred concomitantly with lipid peroxidation and oxidation (carbonylation) of specific embryo proteins. Incubation of dormant seeds for 3 h in the presence of hydrogen cyanide (a compound that breaks dormancy) or methylviologen (a ROS-generating compound) also released dormancy and caused the oxidation of a specific set of embryo proteins. From these observations, we propose a novel mechanism for seed dormancy alleviation. This mechanism involves ROS production and targeted changes in protein carbonylation patterns.

Received 17 November 2006; revised 21 December 2006; accepted 4 January 2007

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03063.x About DOI