Exogenous application of nitric oxide donors regulates short-term flooding stress in soybean

Muhammad Aaqil Khan; Abdul Latif Khan; Qari Muhammad Imran; Sajjad Asaf; Sang-Uk Lee; Byung-Wook Yun; Muhammad Hamayun; Tae-Han Kim; In-Jung Lee

doi:10.7717/peerj.7741

Exogenous application of nitric oxide donors regulates short-term flooding stress in soybean

PeerJ. 2019 Oct 8:7:e7741. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7741. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Muhammad Aaqil Khan¹, Abdul Latif Khan², Qari Muhammad Imran¹, Sajjad Asaf², Sang-Uk Lee¹, Byung-Wook Yun¹, Muhammad Hamayun³, Tae-Han Kim⁴, In-Jung Lee¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Degue, South Korea.
² Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman.
³ Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan.
⁴ School of Agricultural Civil & Bio-industrial Machinery Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea.

Abstract

Short-term water submergence to soybean (Glycine max L.) create hypoxic conditions hindering plant growth and productivity. Nitric oxide (NO) is considered a stress-signalling and stress-evading molecule, however, little is known about its role during flooding stress. We elucidated the role of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and S-nitroso L-cysteine (CySNO) as NO donor in modulation of flooding stress-related bio-chemicals and genetic determinants of associated nitrosative stress to Daewon and Pungsannamul soybean cultivars after 3 h and 6 h of flooding stress. The results showed that exogenous SNP and CysNO induced glutathione activity and reduced the resulting superoxide anion contents during short-term flooding in Pungsannamul soybean. The exo- SNP and CysNO triggered the endogenous S-nitrosothiols, and resulted in elevated abscisic acid (ABA) contents in both soybean cultivars overtime. To know the role of ABA and NO related genes in short-term flooding stress, the mRNA expression of S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR1), NO overproducer1 (NOX1) and nitrate reductase (NR), Timing of CAB expression1 (TOC1), and ABA-receptor (ABAR) were assessed. The transcripts accumulation of GSNOR1, NOX1, and NR being responsible for NO homeostasis, were significantly high in response to early or later phases of flooding stress. ABAR and TOC1 showed a decrease in transcript accumulation in both soybean plants treated with exogenous SNP and CySNO. The exo- SNP and CySNO could impinge a variety of biochemical and transcriptional programs that can mitigate the negative effects of short-term flooding stress in soybean.

Keywords: Flooding stress; Nitric oxide; S-nitrosoglutathione reductase; S-nitrosothiols; Sodium nitroprusside; Soybean.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Kyungpook National University Research Fund, 2018. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.