Exogenous Vitamin K3 and Peroxides Can Alleviate Hypoxia in Bean Seedlings (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Phaseolus vulgaris&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; L.)

C B Rajashekar,Jinmin Fu,Anju Giri

doi:10.4236/ajps.2014.522355

Exogenous Vitamin K3 and Peroxides Can Alleviate Hypoxia in Bean Seedlings (&lt;i&gt;Phaseolus vulgaris&lt;/i&gt; L.)

C B Rajashekar, Jinmin Fu + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.522355

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Abstract

Oxygen limiting conditions are a common occurrence in root zones of most crop plants and can adversely affect nearly all aspects of plant growth and development including its survival. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a novel redox cycling agent, vitamin K3, and various peroxides including hydrogen peroxide, calcium peroxide and magnesium peroxide in alleviating the effects of hypoxia in bean seedlings grown in nutrient culture. All the anti-hypoxic agents including vitamin K3 had a positive impact on the overall growth of bean seedlings under hypoxic conditions, but their responses were variable depending on the concentration. With regard to shoot growth, vitamin K3 (5 μM) increased the leaf area significantly, by more than 58% over the hypoxic control plants and produced the highest stem fresh weight similar to calcium peroxide (20 μM) and magnesium peroxide (10 μM). In addition, the use of vitamin K3 resulted in the highest accumulation of chlorophyll (chla + chlb) in the leaves, an increase of nearly two-fold over the hypoxic control plants. Furthermore under hypoxia, calcium peroxide (20 μM) and magnesium peroxide (10 μM) produced the highest leaf biomass (FW) followed by vitamin K3. Vitamin K3 (1 μM) also favored root growth in bean seedlings under hypoxia; it produced the largest increase in root length and root biomass (DW) similar to calcium peroxide and magnesium peroxide. Based on the overall shoot and root growth response of bean seedlings to various anti-hypoxic substances under hypoxic conditions, calcium peroxide, magnesium peroxide and vitamin K3 performed better than hydrogen peroxide. These findings show that vitamin K3 and peroxide salts are effective in alleviating hypoxic stress in bean seedlings and also, further highlight their potential for dealing with hypoxia in wide ranging situations.

Highlights

Oxygen limitation to the plants especially to the roots is a common occurrence in crop plants
Total leaf area of bean seedlings treated with all the peroxides and vitamin K3 increased significantly with the exception calcium peroxide at 10 μM (Figure 1)
The largest increase in leaf area was with calcium peroxide at 20 μM, magnesium peroxide at 10 μM and vitamin K3 at 5 μM, producing a leaf area more than 58% of that in the control plants

Summary

Introduction

Oxygen limitation to the plants especially to the roots is a common occurrence in crop plants It is a chronic problem in heavy, poorly drained soils but it can occur in most regions, regardless of soil type, during a transient flooding after a heavy rainfall or prolonged flooding in river basins and coastal areas. Flooding can adversely affect seed germination, seedling establishment, impair growth and development of plants leading to serious reduction in crop productivity and even crop losses (see review by [3]-[7]). Severity of these effects depends on crop species and the length of their exposure to hypoxia. Roots are especially sensitive to oxygen deficiency which can accrue rapidly in waterlogged soils as diffusion of air in saturated soils is relatively low

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