Mechanism of growth amelioration of NaCl-stressed rice (Oryza sativa L.) by .DELTA.-aminolevulinic acid

Abstract

The mechanism of growth amelioration of NaCl-stressed rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Nipponbare) by d-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) was investigated. Rice growth recovered when plants were pretreated with 0.1 or 1 mM ALA before treatment with 50 mM NaCl. There was no increase in chlorophyll content by ALA treatment, indicating that the growth recovery was not due to increased chlorophyll content although ALA is a precursor of chlorophyll biosynthesis. The activities of antioxidative enzymes, including catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR), ascorbate peroxidase (APx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), increased with ALA treatment. In particular, stimulation of CAT, GR, and APx activities by ALA was significant. The hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content decreased after ALA treatment under NaCl-stress conditions. Peroxidation of membrane lipids, as measured by ethane evolution, also decreased after ALA treatment. These results suggest that ALA induces growth amelioration in NaCl-stressed rice by stimulating antioxidative enzyme activity, which resulted in decreased reactive oxygen generation and lipid peroxidation.

Effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid on growth and amylase activity in the radish taproot

“…5-Aminolevulinic acid promoted salinity stress tolerance in cotton (Watanabe et al 2000), spinach (Nishihara et al 2003), potatoes (Zhang et al 2006), date palms (Youssef and Awad 2008), and rice (Wongkantrakorn et al 2009), and ALA enhanced cold tolerance in rice (Hotta et al 1998), melons (Wang et al 2004), and peppers (Korkmaz and Korkmaz 2009). In the case of melons, enhancement of the soluble sugar content by ALA may be responsible for the stress tolerance (Wang et al 2004).…”

Hydrogen peroxide as a mediator of 5‐aminolevulinic acid‐induced Na+ retention in roots for improving salt tolerance of strawberries

“…This interesting finding has allured many scholars to work hard to explore the biological mechanisms behind it. ALA has been found to induce antioxidant enzyme activities (Nishihara et al , Akram and Ashraf ), as well as nonenzymatic antioxidant substances, such as ascorbate, glutathione, proline and polyphenols, which are involved in the elimination of excess ROS and the prevention of oxidative stress (Wongkantrakorn et al , Al‐Ghamdi and Elansary ). Recently, several studies have emphasized that the mechanism of ALA‐improved plant stress tolerance is associated with the promotion of tetrapyrrole metabolism (Nguyen et al , Niu and Ma , Wu et al , Xiong et al ).…”

Selection of salt tolerant purple nonsulfur bacteria producing 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and reducing methane emissions from microbial rice straw degradation

“…Several physiological effects of exogenous ALA at a low concentration (10-30 mM) have been found to regulate plant growth and increase the yields of plants (Wongkanthakorn et al, 2009;Naeem et al, 2011). For instance, ALA significantly enhanced photosynthetic gas exchange in rice under salinity stress (Wongkanthakorn et al, 2009) and under waterdeficit stress in Brassica napus L. . Nevertheless, efforts to use commercial ALA by farmers are difficult because of the high cost of ALA.…”