Hydrogen peroxide pretreatment of roots enhanced oxidative stress response of tomato under cold stress

In the view of physiological role of H2O2, we investigated whether exogenous H2O2 application would affect short-term cold response of tomato and induce acclimation. Pretreatments were performed by immersing roots into 1 mM H2O2 solution for 1 h when transferring seedlings from seedling substrate to soil (acclimated group). Cold stress (3 A degrees C for 16 h) caused significant reduction in relative water content (RWC) of control and non-acclimated (distilled water treated) groups when compared with unstressed plants. H2O2 promoted maintenance of relatively higher RWC under stress. Anthocyanin level in leaves of acclimated plants under cold stress was significantly higher than that of unstressed control and non-acclimated plants. Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels demonstrated low temperature induced oxidative damage to control and non-acclimated plants. MDA remained around unstressed conditions in acclimated plants, which demonstrate that H2O2 acclimation protected tissues against cold induced lipid peroxidation. H2O2 acclimation caused proline accumulation in roots under cold stress. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity in roots of cold stressed and unstressed H2O2 acclimated plants increased when compared with control and non-acclimated plants, with highest increase in roots of acclimated plants under cold stress. CAT levels in roots of acclimated plants also increased, whereas levels remained unchanged in unstressed plants. Endogenous H2O2 levels significantly increased in roots of control and non-acclimated plants under cold stress. On the other hand, H2O2 content in roots of acclimated plants was significantly lower than control and non-acclimated plants under cold stress. The results presented here demonstrated that H2O2 significantly enhanced oxidative stress response by elevating the antioxidant status of tomato.