Abstract
Excessive ultraviolet B (UV-B) irradiation is one of the most serious threats leading to severe crop production losses. It is known that secondary metabolite biosynthesis plays an important role in plant defense and forms a protective shield against excessive UV-B irradiation. The contents of stilbenes and other plant phenolics are known to sharply increase after UV-B irradiation, but there is little direct evidence for the involvement of stilbenes and other plant phenolics in plant UV-B protection. This study showed that foliar application of trans-resveratrol (1 and 5 mM) and trans-piceid (5 mM) considerably increased tolerance to a shock of UV-B (10 min at 1800 µW cm−2 of irradiation intensity) of four-week-old Arabidopsis thaliana plants that are naturally incapable of stilbene production. Application of trans-resveratrol and trans-piceid increased the leaf survival rates by 1–2%. This stilbene-induced improvement in UV-B tolerance was higher than after foliar application of the stilbene precursors, p-coumaric and trans-cinnamic acids (only 1–3%), but less than that after treatment with octocrylene (19–24%), a widely used UV-B absorber. Plant treatment with trans-resveratrol increased expression of antioxidant and stress-inducible genes in A. thaliana plants and decreased expression of DNA repair genes. This study directly demonstrates an important positive role of stilbenes in plant tolerance to excessive UV-B irradiation, and offers a new approach for plant UV-B protection.
Highlights
Due to their sessile nature, plants are exposed to a great variety of stressful conditions such as high soil salinity, heat, cold, drought, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation
Aqueous solutions of stilbenes (t-resveratrol, t-piceid), stilbene precursors (p-coumaric acid, t-cinnamic acid), and octocrylene at the concentrations of 1 and 5 mM were sprayed with a 2 mL atomizer polypropylene vials onto the adaxial and abaxial leaf surface of the four-week-old rosettes of A. thaliana
We investigated the effects of the stilbenes, stilbene precursors, and octocrylene on the leaf number and fresh biomass accumulation of
Summary
Due to their sessile nature, plants are exposed to a great variety of stressful conditions such as high soil salinity, heat, cold, drought, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV component of solar light is composed of three parts: UV-A (400 nm–320 nm), UV-B (320 nm–290 nm), and UV-C (290 nm–200 nm). UV-C is the most harmful to plants and is entirely absorbed by stratospheric ozone, oxygen, and other atmospheric gases [1]. Plants are normally exposed to only UV-A and UV-B radiation. UV-A radiation is the least energetic and damaging, but excessive UV-B irradiation is a serious threat leading to severe crop production losses [2]. UV-B radiation is known for its negative effects on plant growth and development, photosynthetic apparatus, as well as DNA and chloroplast damage [3,4,5]
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