biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 61:178-186, 2017 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-016-0654-y

Reactive oxygen species and sugars may be the messengers in kinetin-induced death of field bean root cortex cells

M. Doniak¹, A. Kaźmierczak^1,*, A. Byczkowska¹, S. Glińska²

¹ Department of Cytophysiology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland

² Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland

Kinetin-induced programmed cell death of field bean (Vicia faba spp. minor) root cortex cells led to aerenchyma formation. The process was accompanied by appearance of a greater amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS), greater superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, as well as by thickening cell walls and changes in sugar amounts, particularly in cell wall-bound sugars. The obtained results justify the supposition that ROS scavengers together with an increased amount of sugars (soluble, storage, and cell wall-bound) and thick cell walls protected the cells against death. Thus, kinetin played a dual role because it induced programmed death of chosen cells and simultaneously stimulated protective mechanisms against death in other cells. These results confirm an earlier suggestion that cell death induced by kinetin is a specific process during which its progression is hallmarked by metabolic and morphological features.

Keywords: aerenchyma; catalase; fluorescence microscopy; superoxide dismutase; transmission electron microscopy

Subjects: sugars; kinetin-induced death; root cortex cells; aerenchyma; catalase; superoxide dismutase; hydrogen peroxide; field bean; reactive oxygen species

Received: October 3, 2015; Revised: February 10, 2016; Accepted: March 14, 2016; Published: January 1, 2017  Show citation