4 research outputs found
Responses to environmental stresses in metallicolous and non metallicolous Silene paradoxa L. populations
Linking root traits to copper exclusion mechanisms in Silene paradoxa L. (Caryophyllaceae)
Copper is one of the most important pollutants in mine- contaminated soils. This study tests the response in a sensitive population vs a tolerant one of the model species Silene paradoxa in order to understand the general mechanisms of tolerance at the micromorphological and ultrastructural level.
Two populations of Silene paradoxa were grown in hydroponics and exposed to different CuSO4 treatments. The roots were investigated with light, fluorescence and transmission electron microscope. Callose and lignin were spectrophotometrically determined.
The tolerant population constitutively possessed a higher amount of mucilage and was able to reduce the length of the zone between the apex and the first lignified tracheids. Callose production decreased. It did not show remarkable copper-induced ultrastructural modifications, apart from the presence of precipitates in the tangential walls. The sensitive population showed huge nucleoli with a spongy periphery in the central cylinder together with the presence of electrondense granules in the mitochondria. Plastids were rarely observed and generally very electrondense and elongated.
In the copper tolerant population of S. paradoxa some of the root traits concurring to generate metal-excluding roots were suggested to be mucilage and lignin production and the reduction of the subapical root zone
Linking root traits to copper exclusion mechanisms in Silene paradoxa L. (Caryophyllaceae)
Under fungal attack on a metalliferous soil: ROS or not ROS? Insights from Silene paradoxa L. growing under copper stress
We investigated how the adaptation to metalliferous environments can influence the plant response to biotic stress. In a metallicolous and a non-metallicolous population of Silene paradoxa the induction of oxidative stress and the production of callose and volatiles were evaluated in the presence of copper and of the PAMP fungal protein cerato-platanin, separately and in combination. Our results showed incompatibility between the ordinary ROS-mediated response to fungal attack and the acquired mechanisms of preventing oxidative stress in the tolerant population. A similar situation was also demonstrated by the sensitive population growing in the presence of copper but, in this case, with a lack of certain responses, such as callose production. In addition, in terms of the joint behaviour of emitted volatiles, multivariate statistics showed that not only did the populations respond differently to the presence of
copper or biotic stress, but also that the biotic and abiotic stresses interacted in different ways in the two populations.
Our results demonstrated that the same incompatibility of hyperaccumulators in ROS-mediated biotic stress signals also seemed to be exhibited by the excluder metallophyte, but without the advantage of being able to rely on the elemental defence for plant protection from natural enemies