Differential Induction of Glutathione Transferases and Glucosyltransferases in Wheat, Maize and Arabidopsis thaliana by Herbicide Safeners

Abstract

By learning lessons from weed science we have adopted three approaches to make plants more effective in phytoremediation: 1. The application of functional genomics to identify key components involved in the detoxification of, or tolerance to, xenobiotics for use in subsequent genetic engineering/breeding programmes. 2. The rational metabolic engineering of plants through the use of forced evolution of protective enzymes, or alternatively transgenesis of detoxification pathways. 3. The use of chemical treatments which protect plants from herbicide injury. In this paper we examine the regulation of the xenome by herbicide safeners, which are chemicals widely used in crop protection due to their ability to enhance herbicide selectivity in cereals. We demonstrate that these chemicals act to enhance two major groups of phase 2 detoxification enzymes, notably the glutathione transferases and glucosyltransferases, in both cereals and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, with the safeners acting in a chemical-and species-specific manner. Our results demonstrate that by choosing the right combination of safener and plant it should be possible to enhance the tolerance of diverse plants to a wide range of xenobiotics including pollutants.

Safeners recruit multiple signalling pathways for the orchestrated induction of the cellular xenobiotic detoxification machinery in Arabidopsis

“…In Arabidopsis thaliana, for example, safeners were shown to induce the expression of GSTs and glucosyl transferases (phase II; DeRidder et al 2002;Smith et al 2004;Edwards et al 2005b), glutathione-conjugate transport (phase III; Baerson et al 2005;DeRidder & Goldsbrough 2006) and catabolism (phase IV;Brazier-Hicks et al 2008). Also in hybrid poplar, phase I-III genes were found to be up-regulated after safener treatment (Rishi et al 2004).…”

A GlutathioneS-Transferase Regulated by Light and Hormones Participates in the Modulation of Arabidopsis Seedling Development

“…Classes Z and T are plant homologs of mammals and other organisms and function in primary metabolism such as isomerization of maleylacetoacetate and detoxification of hydroperoxides formed during oxidative stress Kampranis et al, 2000). Classes L and dehydroascorbate reductases are newly found in plants and function in redox homeostasis (Dixon et al, 2002a;Edwards et al, 2005). Thus, the functions of plant GSTs are diverse and might be due to the ability to conjugate glutathione (GSH) to various targets involved in biotic and abiotic stress.…”

The omicization of agrochemical research

“…31) Herbicide safeners were also showed to induce GSTs as well as glucosyltransferases in maize and Arabidopisis. 32) Teixeira and coworkers used a proteomics approach to differentiate the effects of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) treatment upon Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 33) These selected papers represent a small selection of the types of studies that can be performed with omics applications in agricultural research.…”