Abstract
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an air pollutant present at high levels in various regions. Plants actively take up H2S via the foliage, though the impact of the gas on the physiological functioning of plants is paradoxical. Whereas elevated H2S levels may be phytotoxic, H2S levels realistic for polluted areas can also significantly contribute to the sulfur requirement of the vegetation. Plants can even grow with H2S as sole sulfur source. There is no relation between the rate of H2S metabolism and the H2S susceptibility of a plant, which suggests that the metabolism of H2S does not contribute to the detoxification of absorbed sulfide. By contrast, there may be a strong relation between the rate of H2S metabolism and the rate of sulfate metabolism: foliar H2S absorbance may downregulate the metabolism of sulfate, taken up by the root. Studies with plants from the Brassica genus clarified the background of this downregulation. Simultaneously, these studies illustrated that H2S fumigation may be a useful tool for obtaining insight in the regulation of sulfur homeostasis and the (signal) functions of sulfur-containing compounds in plants.
Highlights
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous compound present in the global atmosphere (Watts, 2000)
Similar to observations for other species, in Brassica, cysteine and glutathione levels increased in the shoot upon H2S exposure, whereas their content in the root was hardly affected (De Kok et al, 2000; Buchner et al, 2004; Koralewska et al, 2008)
When no sulfate is present in the root environment, there is a poor shoot-to-root signaling for the regulation of sulfate utilization in Brassica. This suggests that the uptake and subsequent metabolism of sulfate in Brassica are at least partly controlled by the sulfate concentration in the root environment
Summary
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous compound present in the global atmosphere (Watts, 2000). Various plants (especially monocots) can tolerate strongly elevated shoot cysteine and glutathione levels in the presence of H2S without any negative impact on biomass production, even after prolonged H2S exposure (De Kok, 1989, 1990; Stulen et al, 1990, 2000).
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