Changes in the antioxidative metabolism induced by Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus infection in peach [ Prunus persica (L.) Batsch

Abstract

Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) is the causal agent of “viruela” disease, one of the limiting factors to apricot production in affected areas in the Southeast of Spain. In this work, the response of antioxidant enzymes to ACLSV infection of an indicator peach genotype, ‘GF305’, which is characterised by a great susceptibility to this virus, was studied before (short-period incubation) and after (long-period incubation) a cold treatment. Short-period ACLSV incubation caused significant changes in ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POX) and catalase (CAT) activities. In addition, long-period ACLSV incubation caused significant changes of activities in most of the antioxidant enzymes examined. The results show increases in the APX, dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities, whereas POX suffered a decrease of about 34%. No changes in lipid peroxidation, measured as TBARS, were observed in peach leaves as a consequence of the long-period ACLSV incubation. Overall, the data show that long-period ACLSV incubation did not produce any symptoms in peach GF305 leaves or damage to membranes (no changes in lipid peroxidation), and this response was correlated with an increase in the antioxidant defences in leaves, such as the ASC-GSH cycle enzymes and the SOD and GST activities.