title: Physiological and molecular characterization of the enhanced salt tolerance induced by low-dose gamma irradiation in Arabidopsis seedlings.
abstract: It has been established that gamma rays at low doses stimulate the tolerance to salt stress in plants. However, our knowledge regarding the molecular mechanism underlying the enhanced salt tolerance remains limited. In this study, we found that 50-Gy gamma irradiation presented maximal beneficial effects on germination index and root length in response to salt stress in Arabidopsis seedlings. The contents of H2O2 and MDA in irradiated seedlings under salt stress were significantly lower than those of controls. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and proline levels in the irradiated seedlings were markedly increased compared with the controls. Furthermore, transcriptional expression analysis of selected genes revealed that some components of salt stress signaling pathways were stimulated by low-dose gamma irradiation under salt stress. Our results suggest that gamma irradiation at low doses alleviates the salt stress probably by modulating the physiological responses as well as stimulating the stress signal transduction in Arabidopsis seedlings.
authors: Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bio-engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Wencai
authors: W
authors: Qi
authors: College of Life Science, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China.
authors: Liang
authors: L
authors: Zhang
authors: Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bio-engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Hangbo
authors: H
authors: Xu
authors: Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bio-engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Wang
authors: Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bio-engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China. Electronic address: jiaozhen@zzu.edu.cn.
authors: Zhen
authors: Z
authors: Jiao
mesh_terms: D000975:Antioxidants / Q000378:metabolism; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D005720:Gamma Rays; D018525:Germination / Q000528:radiation effects; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation / Q000528:radiation effects; D011392:Proline / Q000378:metabolism; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D055049:Salt Tolerance; D036226:Seedlings / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D011392:Proline
keywords: Arabidopsis seedling; Low-dose gamma irradiation; Salt stress; Salt tolerance; Stress signal transduction