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Oxidative metabolism‐related changes during germination of mono maple ( Acer mono Maxim.) seeds under seasonal frozen soil
Author(s) -
Qin Jihong,
Liu Qing
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/s11284-009-0660-z
Subject(s) - germination , maple , dormancy , aceraceae , antioxidant , botany , biology , horticulture , chemistry , biochemistry
The influence of seasonal frozen soil and buried depth on germination of mono maple ( Acer mono Maxim.) seeds was studied in field conditions in winter in a sub‐alpine region. Mono maple seeds almost lost their ability to germinate in non‐freezing soil, while seasonal frozen soil treatments facilitated the germination accompanied with a progressive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The result indicates that ROS may act as a positive signal for seed dormancy. However, exceeding accumulation of ROS led to decrease in germination rate. We suggest that the shift from a signaling to a deleterious role may be related to the accumulation of these ROS above a threshold level that leads to various cellular alterations and damage. The enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes appear to be more closely related to freezing tolerance, because of their ability to scavenge ROS to avoid deleterious events. Seasonal frozen soil was beneficial in accelerating the germination of mono maple seeds. However, a slight increase of freezing temperature may have also facilitated the germination of mono maple seeds by enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes. Hence, moderate winter warming may be beneficial to mono maple regeneration due to the improvement of seed germination, but the disappearance of seasonal frozen soil may lead to germination failure of the mono maple seeds.