Shuvasish Choudhury, Piyalee Panda , Lingaraj Sahoo & Sanjib Kumar Panda
To cite this article: Shuvasish Choudhury, Piyalee Panda , Lingaraj Sahoo & Sanjib Kumar
Panda (2013) Reactive oxygen species signaling in plants under abiotic stress, Plant Signaling &
Behavior, 8:4, e23681, DOI: 10.4161/psb.23681
provide defense against the ROS.6 Antioxidants play the criti- a substrate by ascorbate peroxidase (APX) to reduce H 2O2 to
cal role of ROS removal and its activation is directly correlated H 2O in the ascorbateglutathione cycle and generate mono-
with defense against abiotic stress and plant development.6 The dehydroascorbate, which further dissociate to AA and dehy-
survival in the stressed environment requires stable redox state, droascorbate.12 Under abiotic stress conditions, the role of AA
which practically needs efficient antioxidant pathways to remove is diverse. Decline or elevation of AA content was reported in
the ROS in different cellular compartments.2,7,8 In order to have plants under heavy metal stress.3,13-15 -tocopherol along with
an efficient antioxidant activity, cellular and physiological pro- other antioxidants scavenges lipid peroxy radical.8,16 It acts as
cesses needs to be effective. ROS are produced in cells constantly lipophilic antioxidant and interacts with polyunsaturated acyl
and any imbalance between ROS and antioxidants implicates to groups of lipids and reduces the deleterious effects of ROS.17
oxidative stress.9 ROS generation is also genetically programmed.8 -tocopherol stabilizes membrane and also acts as substance
For examples, ROS like H2O2 and O2- acts as second messengers, that modulates signal transduction. Glutathione are non-pro-
but its accumulation at high levels causes oxidative stress leading tein thiols that has a key role in H 2O2 detoxification.6,8,18 It has
to cell death. been reported that the conversion ratio of reduced glutathione
The major antioxidants that play crucial role in ROS detoxi- (GSH) to its oxidized form (GSSG) during the detoxification
fication includes ascorbic acid (AA), -tocopherol, glutathi- of H 2O2 is the indicator of cellular redox balance.8 These events
one, catalase (CAT), peroxidases (POX), superoxide dismutase were widely reported in plants under various abiotic stresses.
(SOD), glutathione reductase (GR) etc. Synchronized action Glutathione and AA are now considered as important compo-
of these antioxidants result in detoxification of ROS and limit nent of redox signaling in plants.19-21
oxidative stress in plants (Fig. 2). Ascorbic acid is distributed One of the major lines of defense against ROS is superox-
in almost all the plants. It is synthesized in the mitochondria ide dismutase (SOD) along with other enzymes like ascorbate
and transported to other parts of the plants.8,10,11 AA is used as peroxidase (APX), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase
(CAT). SOD converts superoxide to H 2O2, while APX, GPX conditions activity of other antioxidants are upregulated. Thus,
and CAT detoxifies H 2O2.22 The conversion of H2O2 to H2O by the balance between ROS production and antioxidant activity
APX requires ascorbate and reduced glutathione (GSH) regener- is essential.
ation system via ascorbate-glutathione cycle. H2O2 is converted
to H 2O by oxidation of ascorbate to mono dehydroascorbate ROS Signaling in Plants
(MDA), which further dismutate to dehydroascorbate.22 Like
APX, GPX uses GSH as a reducing agent to detoxify H 2O2 Chemically, ROS appears to be detrimental to cellular function.
to H 2O. The organellar redox state is regulated by different Genetic evidences suggest that ROS can also act as a signal-
enzymic antioxidants like glutathione reductase (GR), mono ing molecule in regulating diverse function in plants.6 O2- and
dehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) in addition to GPX.23 H2O2, which are considered as primary ROS in plants can act
It was observed that these redox regulator enzymes along with as secondary messenger in plants by regulating diverse func-
ROS network genes are co-expressed in chloroplast and mito- tion of growth and development.6,29 The generation of ROS
chondria, which can be important in understanding redox in cell organelles like chloroplast and mitochondria are capa-
state.5,23,24 Several reports suggest that certain GPX genes are ble of inducing changes in the nuclear transcriptome, but the
sturdily induced by ROS.6,25-27 In comparison to other enzy- mechanism of signal transduction still remains unclear to some
mic antioxidants like CAT and ascorbate peroxidase, GPX has extent.22 ROS can influence gene expression by modifying tran-
got minimum role to play in peroxide metabolism.6 Studies on scription factors.22 In the past few decades, significant progress
plant GPX genes have revealed significant homology with mam- have been achieved in understanding ROS signaling in plants
malian phospholipid hydroperoxide GPX (PHGPX), which has and now it is clear beyond doubt that ROS acts as major sig-
got high empathy for lipid hydroperoxide rather than H2O2. naling molecule in diverse processes in plants.30 For examples,
Further the overexpressions of PHGPX in transgenic plants H2O2 production is triggered during both biotic and abiotic
have shown better stress tolerance.6,28 Obviously, the degree stress. This ROS, which is produced by the cytosolic membrane
of oxidative stress is determined by the level of ROS and the bound NADPH oxidase is regarded as a signal during abiotic
balance between ROS and antioxidants is essential to main- stress.31 ROS influences expression of several genes, suggesting
tain balanced redox state. Under abiotic stress conditions, the that ROS acts as a biological signal in regulating stresses.31,32
activities of certain antioxidants are disrupted. During such Laloi et al.31 stated that ROS interacts with the target molecule