Influência dos estresses hídrico e salino nos sistemas antioxidante e lipídico durante a transição semente-plântula em cártamo

Abstract

During seed’s post-germinative development, drought and toxic ionic concentrations affect physiological and metabolic processes of cotyledonary tissues, such as growth, enzyme activity and mobilization of lipid reserves, as well as contribute to a cellular redox imbalance. However, studies generally report metabolic changes throughout the development under stress conditions applied only at the time of soaking. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the phenological and physiological changes caused by Poliethyleneglycol induced-osmotic stress (PEG-8000) and NaCl induced-salt stresses applied during soaking or during seed-to-seedling transition. In addition, the present work characterizes the activity of APX, CAT and SOD enzymes and APX, CAT, ICL and MLS mRNA expression of safflower seedlings subjected to stress applied only at the seed-to-seedling transition stage. It was observed that seedlings suffered phenological and physiological changes according to application time of NaCl and PEG treatments. During the seed-to-seedling transition, stress conditions affected root growth, germination rate and germination speed index in lower levels than when they are applied at the time of soaking. PEG-induced osmotic stress exerts more severe effects on the evaluated phenological and physiological parameters, regardless of application time. Interestingly, during seed-to-seedling transition, the H2O2 and lipid peroxidation levels in control seedlings showed an intense increase during establishment. Conversely, both stresses induced decreases in chlorophyll, carotenoids, H2O2, and peroxidized lipid levels when comparing to control, even though stressed plants presented marked reductions in SOD and CAT activities. These reductions were also at the transcriptional level, since CAT mRNA expression was only observed after 72 h of PEG treatment and not observed at all during NaCl treatment. On the other hand, APX activity and expression remained high during both treatments, as well as MLS mRNA expression. Taking into account all the obtained results, we conclude that specific stress conditions during seed-to-seedling transition may interfere in the H2O2 signalization needed to complete establishment, causing delays on the beginning of photosynthetic metabolism. Also, it seems that APX system may have an important role in maintenance of this process.