Abstract
BackgroundLoss of vigor caused by seed aging adversely affects agricultural production under natural conditions. However, priming is an economical and effective method for improving the vigor of aged seeds. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of exogenous ascorbic acid (ASC) and glutathione (GSH) priming in the repairing of aged oat (Avena sativa) seeds, and to test the hypothesis that structural and functional systems in mitochondria were involved in this process.ResultsOat seeds were artificially aged for 20 days at 45 °C, and were primed with solutions (1 mmol L− 1) of ASC, GSH, or ASC + GSH at 20 °C for 0.5 h before or after their aging. Seed germination, antioxidant enzymes in the ASC-GSH cycle, cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (MDH) activities, and the mitochondrial ultrastructures of the embryonic root cells were markedly improved in aged oat seeds through post-priming with ASC, GSH, or ASC + GSH, while their malondialdehyde and H2O2 contents decreased significantly (P < 0.05).ConclusionOur results suggested that priming with ASC, GSH, or ASC + GSH after aging could effectively alleviate aging damage in oat seeds, and that the role of ASC was more effective than GSH, but positive effects of post-priming with ASC and GSH were not superior to post-priming with ASC in repairing aging damage of aged oat seeds. However, pre-priming with ASC, GSH, or ASC + GSH was not effective in oat seeds, suggesting that pre-priming with ASC, GSH, or ASC + GSH could not inhibit the occurrence of aging damage in oat seeds.
Highlights
Loss of vigor caused by seed aging adversely affects agricultural production under natural conditions
In the Ascorbate acid (ASC)-GSH cycle, ascorbate peroxidase (APX) reduces the toxicity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by using ASC as substrate; ASC is recycled in the matrix by NADH-dependent monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) or GSH-dependent dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), while GSH can be recycled in the matrix by glutathione reductase (GR) using NADPH as an electron donor [12, 13]
Effect of ASC and GSH priming on the germination percentage in aged oat seeds The germination percentages of oat seeds primed with ASC or GSH after aging were higher than those primed before aging (Fig. 1)
Summary
Loss of vigor caused by seed aging adversely affects agricultural production under natural conditions. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of exogenous ascorbic acid (ASC) and glutathione (GSH) priming in the repairing of aged oat (Avena sativa) seeds, and to test the hypothesis that structural and functional systems in mitochondria were involved in this process. Seed aging, resulting in a loss of vigor and viability under natural storage conditions, is a major problem for successful agricultural production and productivity. The scavenging of ROS largely depends on the availability of molecular antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (ASC) and glutathione (GSH) in dry seeds [8]. At the cellular level, seed aging reduces the activities of several enzymes involved in the ASC-GSH cycle [16, 19]. Maintaining high levels of ASC and GSH is important to guarantee vigor in aged seeds
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