Toxicity of reactive carbonyl compounds to plants

Abstract

In plants, environmental stresses result in oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and the generation of reactive carbonyl aldehydes. Reactive carbonyl aldehydes are downstream products of reactive oxygen species which can be described as critical cell-damaging agents in plants under various environmental stresses. In this paper toxicity of reactive carbonyl aldehydes and its generation under stress conditions are discussed. Moreover, involvement of reactive carbonyl aldehydes in stress- induced damage to plants is demonstrated. Toxic effect of reactive aldehydes such as acrolein, malondialdehyde and crotonaldehyde in plants under different stresses and their high electrophilicity is also discussed. Increases in malondialdehyde was demonstrated in UV-C stressed plants as the result of carbonyl modified proteins. A malondialdehyde is one of the widely shown aldehyde, which can be demonstrated as an indicator of reactive oxygen species. Malondialdehyde isomerized to 3-hydroxyacrolein whereas it can be described as a dialdehyde. The article considers detrimental actions of reactive carbonyl aldehydes and their chemical properties as well as detoxification of reactive carbonyl aldehydes by multiple enzymes such as aldehyde dehydrogenase, aldehyde reductase, aldo-keto reductase and 2-alkenal reductase.