Ethephon advances the release time of limit dextrinase from gibberellic acid-treated aleurone layer

Abstract

Abstract The aleurone layer plays a key role in germination by responding to hormone signals from embryo and producing hydrolases. The barley aleurone layer can be separated from the other seed tissues and maintained in culture, allowing the study of the effect of added signaling molecules in an isolated system. In this work, the effect of ethephon on the protein release from gibberellic acid (GA)-treated aleurone layer was presented for two important enzymes in starch degradation: α-amylase and limit dextrinase (LD). The results showed that the release of proteins from aleurone layer to culture supernatant was remarkably increased when GA- treated aleurone layer was exposed to 1000–10000 ppm ethephon. Ethephon enhanced the release of α-amylase and advanced the release time of LD from GA-treated aleurone layer to culture supernatant. The results supports that the release of LD is dependent to cell wall degradation which can be induced by the effect of ethephon.