title: Does abscisic acid influence proline accumulation in stressed leaves?
abstract: Root treatments of barley (Hordeum distichum L.) plants with 10(-7) to 10(-4) M abscisic acid (ABA) caused an increase in proline content, especially at higher concentrations, within 2-3 h. Even 3 h after the removal of ABA from the medium the plants continued to accumulate proline. The higher the concentration of the ABA, the higher was the proline level at 6 h. When the highest ABA concentration, 10(-4) M, was tested with polyethylene glycol (PEG) (-5.0 bars) in the medium, the ABA treatment resulted in a higher proline content than in control plants. The treatments "PEG alone" and "PEG + ABA" resulted in heavy accumulation of proline, especially, 3 h after releasing the plants from the stress. The proline content in PEG+ABA-treated plants was always higher than plants treated with PGE or ABA alone. In peas (Pisum sativum L. cv Alaska) the same trend occurred although to a lesser degree. These findings indicate an influence of ABA on proline accumulation in water-stressed plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Physiology and Anatomy, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK-1871, Copenhagen V, Denmark.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rajagopal
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Andersen