Oxidative metabolism in plants from Brazilian rupestrian fields and its relation with foliar water uptake in dry and rainy seasons

Abstract

In an altitudinal Brazilian ecosystem, fog is a frequent event in both the dry and rainy seasons. The drought stress is aggravated in the dry season due to elevated evaporative demand and this constraint can induce oxidative stress in plants. In this ecosystem, there are plants which present different foliar water uptake (FWU) capacities - species that absorb less water more quickly (LQ) and those that absorb more water more slowly (MS). In this study, the relationship between oxidative stress responses and the different FWU strategies was evaluated in dry and rainy seasons. The oxidative stress was assessed by H₂O₂ production and lipid peroxidation as well as by the antioxidant enzymes system as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). During the dry season, plants had higher oxidative stress compared to rainy season plants which exhibited moderate oxidative damage. The FWU strategies were closely related to oxidative stress responses, since the LQ species presented the higher H₂O₂ content and oxidative defense system. Contrastingly, it was found that MS species have the lowest values of H₂O₂ and less SOD, CAT and APX activities. However, the lipid peroxidation did not present any relation with FWU strategies. Altogether results revealed that plants, which present MS strategy, are more adapted to cope with the higher H₂O₂ concentrations generated in the dry season and drought stress events than those that present LQ strategy.

Keywords: Adaptive strategies; Cell signaling; Drought stress; Reactive oxygen species.