Journal
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 35, Issue 11, Pages 1983-1997Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3040.2012.02531.x
Keywords
alternative oxidase; cucumber; environmental stress; ethylene; hydrogen peroxide; potassium cyanide; reactive oxygen species
Categories
Funding
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [91017004, 31070210, 30970214, J1103518]
- National Key Basic Research '973' Program of China [2009CB118500]
- Sichuan and Chengdu Nature Science Foundation [2010JQ0080, 11DXYB097JH-027]
- PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [20110181110059]
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The effects of potassium cyanide (KCN) pretreatment on the response of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants to salt, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cold stress were investigated in the present study. Here, we found that KCN pretreatment improved cucumber seedlings tolerance to stress conditions with maximum efficiency at a concentration of 20 mu M. The results showed that pretreatment with 20 mu M KCN alleviated stress-induced oxidative damage in plant cells and clearly induced the activity of alternative oxidase (AOX) and the ethylene production. Furthermore, the structures of thylakoids and mitochondria in the KCN-pretreated seedlings were less damaged by the stress conditions, which maintained higher total chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate and photosystem II (PSII) proteins levels than the control. Importantly, the addition of the AOX inhibitor salicylhydroxamic acid (1 mm; SHAM) decreased plant resistance to environmental stress and even compromised the cyanide (CN)-enhanced stress tolerance. Therefore, our findings provide a novel role of CN in plant against environmental stress and indicate that the CN-enhanced AOX might contribute to the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and the protection of photosystem by maintaining energy charge homoeostasis from chloroplast to mitochondria.
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