Abstract
Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH) are a family of enzymes that are involved in plant metabolism and contribute to aldehyde homeostasis to eliminate toxic aldehydes. The ALDH enzymes produce NADPH and NADH in their enzymatic reactions and thus contribute to balancing redox equivalents. Previous studies showed that Arabidopsis ALDH genes are expressed in response to high salinity, dehydration, oxidative stress, or heavy metals, suggesting important roles in environmental adaptation. However, the role of ALDH genes in high temperature and stress combinations (heat stress combined with dehydration, wounding, or salt stress) is unclear. Here, we analysed expression patterns of selected ALDH genes on the transcript and protein level at different time points of heat stress, basal and acquired thermotolerance, and stress combination treatments. Our results indicate that ALDH3I1 and ALDH7B4 are strongly induced by heat stress. Higher levels of ALDH7B4 accumulated in response to dehydration-heat, heat-salt and wounding-heat combination stress than in response to single stressors. The comparison of physiological and biological parameters in T-DNA double mutants of ALDH genes and wild-type plants demonstrated that mutant lines are more sensitive to heat stress and stress combinations than wild-type plants.
Highlights
Current climate predictions indicate that average surface temperatures will rise by 3–5 °C during the 50–100 years and crop plants will face an increase in weather disasters that can have severe consequences (Teixeira et al, 2013)
Expression of Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH) genes in Arabidopsis plants subjected to high temperature stress To assess the impact of high temperature stress on phenotypic changes of Arabidopsis plants, first the morphological changes were examined
ALDH3I1, ALDH3F1, ALDH10A8 and ALDH10A9 transcript levels did not change under heat stress and recovery conditions, but ALDH3H1 transcripts accumulated at a lower level during recovery
Summary
Current climate predictions indicate that average surface temperatures will rise by 3–5 °C during the 50–100 years and crop plants will face an increase in weather disasters that can have severe consequences (Teixeira et al, 2013). Temperature stress can have a devastating effect on plant metabolism, disrupting cellular homeostasis and uncoupling physiological processes (Wahid et al, 2007). A direct result of stressinduced cellular changes is the enhanced accumulation of cellular toxic compounds including reactive oxygen species (ROS), which in turn lead to excessive aldehyde accumulation (Stiti et al, 2011; Singh et al, 2013). Aldehydes are intermediates in several fundamental metabolic pathways and they are produced in response to salinity, dehydration, desiccation, cold, and heat stress (Bartels, 2001; Kirch et al, 2005; Kotchoni et al, 2006). Aldehydes may react with proteins and nucleic acids and destroy their functions, which leads to cell death.
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