Paulina Kuczyńska

Heavy metal-induced oxidative damage, defense reactions, and detoxification mechanisms in plants

Heavy metal (HMs) contamination is widespread globally due to anthropogenic, technogenic, and geogenic activities. The HMs exposure could lead to multiple toxic effects in plants by inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS), which inhibit most cellular processes at various levels of metabolism. ROS being highly unstable could play dual role (1) damaging cellular components and (2) act as an important secondary messenger for inducing plant defense system. Cells are equipped with enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense mechanisms to counteract this damage. Some are constitutive and others that are activated only when a stress-specific signal is perceived. Enzymatic scavengers of ROS include superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase, and peroxidase, while non-enzymatic antioxidants are glutathione, ascorbic acid, α-tocopherol, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, and organic acids. The intracellular and extracellular chelation mechanisms of HMs are associated with organic acids such as citric, malic and oxalic acid, etc. The important mechanism of detoxification includes metal complexation with glutathione, amino acids, synthesis of phytochelatins and sequestration into the vacuoles. Excessive stresses induce a cascade, MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway and synthesis of metal-detoxifying ligands. Metal detoxification through MAPK cascade and synthesis of metal-detoxifying ligands will be of considerable interest in the field of plant biotechnology. Further, the photoprotective roles of pigments of xanthophylls cycle under HMs stress were also discussed.

Photosynthetic Pigments in Diatoms.

Photosynthetic pigments are bioactive compounds of great importance for the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. They are not only responsible for capturing solar energy to carry out photosynthesis, but also play a role in photoprotective processes and display antioxidant activity, all of which contribute to effective biomass and oxygen production. Diatoms are organisms of a distinct pigment composition, substantially different from that present in plants. Apart from light-harvesting pigments such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c, and fucoxanthin, there is a group of photoprotective carotenoids which includes β-carotene and the xanthophylls, diatoxanthin, diadinoxanthin, violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, and zeaxanthin, which are engaged in the xanthophyll cycle. Additionally, some intermediate products of biosynthetic pathways have been identified in diatoms as well as unusual pigments, e.g., marennine. Marine algae have become widely recognized as a source of unique bioactive compounds for potential industrial, pharmaceutical, and medical applications. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on diatom photosynthetic pigments complemented by some new insights regarding their physico-chemical properties, biological role, and biosynthetic pathways, as well as the regulation of pigment level in the cell, methods of purification, and significance in industries.

Xanthophyll cycle – a mechanism protecting plants against oxidative stress

Abstract Six different xanthophyll cycles have been described in photosynthetic organisms. All of them protect the photosynthetic apparatus from photodamage caused by light-induced oxidative stress. Overexcitation conditions lead, in the chloroplast, to the over-reduction of the NADP pool and production of superoxide, which can subsequently be metabolized to hydrogen peroxide or a hydroxyl radical, other reactive oxygen species (ROS). On the other hand, overexcitation of photosystems leads to an increased lifetime of the chlorophyll excited state, increasing the probability of chlorophyll triplet formation which reacts with triplet oxygen forming single oxygen, another ROS. The products of the light-dependent phase of xanthophyll cycles play an important role in the protection against oxidative stress generated not only by an excess of light but also by other ROS-generating factors such as drought, chilling, heat, senescence, or salinity stress. Four, mainly hypothetical, mechanisms explaining the protective role of xanthophyll cycles in oxidative stress are presented. One of them is the direct quenching of overexcitation by products of the light phase of xanthophyll cycles and three others are based on the indirect participation of xanthophyll cycle carotenoids in the process of photoprotection. They include: (1) indirect quenching of overexcitation by aggregation-dependent light-harvesting complexes (LHCII) quenching; (2) light-driven mechanisms in LHCII; and (3) a model based on charge transfer quenching between Chl a and Zx. Moreover, results of the studies on the antioxidant properties of xanthophyll cycle pigments in model systems are also presented.

Physiological characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii acclimated to chronic stress induced by Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu and Hg ions.

Acclimation to heavy metal-induced stress is a complex phenomenon. Among the mechanisms of heavy metal toxicity, an important one is the ability to induce oxidative stress, so that the antioxidant response is crucial for providing tolerance to heavy metal ions. The effect of chronic stress induced by ions of five heavy metals, Ag, Cu, Cr (redox-active metals) Cd, Hg (nonredox-active metals) on the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was examined at two levels - the biochemical (content of photosynthetic pigments and prenyllipid antioxidants, lipid peroxidation) and the physiological (growth rate, photosynthesis and respiration rates, induction of nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence). The expression of the genes which encode the enzymes participating in the detoxification of reactive oxygen species (APX1, CAT1, FSD1, MSD1) was measured. The other gene measured was one required for plastoquinone and α-tocopherol biosynthesis (VTE3). The application of heavy metal ions partly inhibited growth and biosynthesis of chlorophyll. The growth inhibition was accompanied by enhanced lipid peroxidation. An increase in the content of prenyllipid antioxidants was observed in cultures exposed to Cr2O7(2-), Cd(2+) (α- and γ-tocopherol and plastoquinone) and Cu(2+) (only tocopherols). The induction of nonphotochemical quenching was enhanced in cultures exposed to Cu(2+), Cr2O7(2-) and Cd(2+), as compared to the control. Chronic heavy metal-induced stress led to changes in gene expression dependent on the type and concentration of heavy metal ions. The up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes was usually accompanied by the up-regulation of the VTE3 gene.

Characterisation of carotenoids involved in the xanthophyll cycle

Carotenoids are known for versatile roles they play in living organisms; however, their most pivotal function is involvement in scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and photoprotection. In plant kingdom, an important photoprotective mechanism, referred to as the xanthophyll cycle, has been developed by photosynthetic organism to avoid excess light that might lead to photoinhibition and inactivation of photosystems and induce the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in photodamage and long-term changes in the cells caused by oxidative stress. Apart from high-light driven enzymatic conversion of violaxanthin (Viola) to zeaxanthin (Zea) that occurs mostly in higher plants, mosses and lichens, other less known types of the xanthophyll cycle have been hitherto described. The work is aimed at summarising the current knowledge on the pigments engaged in the xanthophyll cycles operating in various organisms.