title: Hydrogen sulfide donor sodium hydrosulfide-improved heat tolerance in maize and involvement of proline.
abstract: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has long been considered as a phytotoxin, but nowadays as a cell signal molecule involved in growth, development, and the acquisition of stress tolerance in higher plants. In the present study, hydrogen sulfide donor, sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), pretreatment markedly improved germination percentage of seeds and survival percentage of seedlings of maize under heat stress, and alleviated an increase in electrolyte leakage of roots, a decrease in tissue vitality and an accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) in coleoptiles of maize seedlings. In addition, pretreatment of NaHS could improve the activity of Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) and lower proline dehydrogenase (ProDH) activity, which in turn induced accumulation of endogenous proline in maize seedlings. Also, application of proline could enhance endogenous proline content, followed by mitigated accumulation of MDA and increased survival percentage of maize seedlings under heat stress. These results suggest that sodium hydrosulfide pretreatment could improve heat tolerance of maize and the acquisition of this heat tolerance may be involved in proline.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Engineering Research Center of Sustainable Development and Utilization of Biomass Energy, Key Laboratory of Biomass Energy and Environmental Biotechnology, Yunnan Province, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, PR China. zhongguang_li@163.com
authors.forename: Zhong-Guang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiao-Jiao
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Pei-Fang
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000187:drug effects*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide / Q000378:metabolism*; D009953:Ornithine-Oxo-Acid Transaminase / Q000378:metabolism; D011392:Proline / Q000378:metabolism*; D011394:Proline Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D036226:Seedlings / Q000187:drug effects; D013440:Sulfides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D013440:Sulfides; D011392:Proline; D011394:Proline Oxidase; D009953:Ornithine-Oxo-Acid Transaminase; C025451:sodium bisulfide; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide