Expression Patterns of Oxidative Stress-Related Genes of Cucurbita pepo and Relation to Cellular H2O2 under Short-Term Heavy Metal Stress

Abstract

Oxidative stress caused by biotic and abiotic stress factors is the most important cause of cellular damage. Due to their sessile structures, plants have evolved regulatory mechanisms to respond to various environmental stresses The increased cellular concentration of reactive oxygen species is one of the major consequences of oxidative stress. including H2O2 production. Also, H2O2 is produced as a by-product of respiratory and photosynthetic metabolisms in plants. H2O2 acts as a multifaceted molecule because of its dual role in cells. It has been found to act as a secondary messenger in signal transmission networks. In this study, the changes in expression levels of stress-related genes and their relationship with H2O2 in pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) plant exposed to Cd heavy metal at different durations and concentrations were investigated. As a result of this study, we concluded that the expression of stress-related genes may be related to the oxidative status of the cell and the concentration of H2O2 in the signaling mechanism, the expression of stress-related genes may be up-regulated to a certain degree of concentration, while a higher concentration of H2O2 may down-regulate the expression of the genes.