Abstract
The main aim of this work was to use multi-instrumental analytical apparatus toinvestigate the effects of treatment with cadmium(II) and/or lead(II) ions (50, 250 and 500μM) for twelve days on early somatic spruce embryos (ESEs). Primarily we used imageanalysis for estimation of growth and a fluorimetric sensor for enzymatic detection ofviability of the treated ESEs. It follows from the obtained results that Cd caused highertoxicity to ESEs than Pb. Besides this fundamental finding, we observed that ESEs grewand developed better in the presence of 500 μM of the metal ions than in the presence of250 μM. Based on the results obtained using nuclear magnetic resonance this phenomenonwas related to an increase of the area of ESE clusters by intensive uptake of water from thecultivation medium, due to dilution of the heavy metal concentration inside the cluster. Inaddition we studied the glutathione content in treated ESEs by the adsorptive transferstripping technique coupled with the differential pulse voltammetry Brdicka reaction. GSHcontents increased up to 148 ng/mg (clone 2/32) and 158 ng/mg (clone PE 14) after twelve day long treatment with Cd-EDTA ions. The GSH content was about 150 and 160 % higher in comparison with the ESEs treated with Pb-EDTA ions, respectively. The difference between GSH contents determined in ESEs treated with Pb-EDTA and Cd-EDTA ions correlates with the higher toxicity of cadmium(II) ions.
Highlights
Plants are continuously exposed to abiotic and biotic stresses in their environment
Plants respond to pathogen attack and/or external stresses by marked changes in gene expression, resulting in the de novo syntheses of specific peptides and proteins such as glutathione and/or phytochelatins [1,2,3]
We studied the influence of cadmium and lead on growth, viability and content of thiol compounds in Early Somatic Embryos (ESEs) of Norway spruce (Picea abies /L./ Karst.) clone 2/32 and Blue spruce (Picea pungens Engelm.) clone PE 14
Summary
Plants are continuously exposed to abiotic and biotic stresses in their environment. Their growth and development are closely associated with their ability to respond and adapt to external stresses. Plants respond to pathogen attack and/or external stresses by marked changes in gene expression, resulting in the de novo syntheses of specific peptides and proteins such as glutathione and/or phytochelatins [1,2,3]. Glutathione (GSH) is considered to be an essential constituent of all living cells and is the most abundant intracellular non-protein thiol [4]. It plays an important role in the detoxification of toxic heavy metals and scavenging of reactive oxygen species. A very wide range of analytical techniques, including both chromatographic coupled with different detectors and stationary ones, such as electrochemical methods, have been utilized for determination of thiols in samples of interest [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]
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