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Title
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The impact of cadmium in the maize leaf growth zone
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Author
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Abstract
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| Much is known about the impact of cadmium (Cd) stress on plants and the plant’s response to this form of abiotic stress. However, it is remarkable that the impact of Cd in the growth zone of monocotyledonous leaves remained largely unstudied. This growth zone hosts the two cellular processes driving growth, i.e. cell division and cell elongation. The aim of my PhD study was to assess the impact of Cd in this maize leaf growth zone at several biological levels. We have found that Cd inhibited leaf growth mainly because it results in a significant reduction of cell production. Cells were halted at the G1-S transition of the cell cycle, which increased the cell cycle duration. In addition, when exposed to Cd, growing leaves had a lower number of meristematic cells and therefore less cells are contributing to cell division. In addition, we have found that Cd accumulated highest in the meristematic tissue, indicating that it could impact processes therein directly. To reveal these processes, we have performed a transcriptome study. This resulted in a broad range of Cd affected processes, which led me to perform biochemical analyses of several phytohormones, minerals, two oxidative stress related parameters and carbohydrates. We showed that Cd caused an increase in stress hormone levels (i.e. salicylic acid, abscisic acid and 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylic acid (ACC, an ethylene precursor)) and a decrease of growth promoting hormones (i.e. gibberellin 1 and trans-zeatin riboside). For gibberellin 1, we were able to directly link changes in the spatial distribution of this phytohormone to changes in transcript levels of key gibberellin synthesis and degradation genes. Regarding the measured minerals, we mainly found manganese to be the most strongly and consistently Cd affected nutrient. Lipid peroxidation and antioxidant potential were increased throughout the entire maize leaf growth zone, demonstrating that Cd resulted in oxidative stress in all developmental stages. Lastly, we found that carbohydrates were increased under Cd stress, perhaps in response to oxidative or osmotic stress. During my PhD study, we have also published leafkin, an R package that contains four functions which allow the user to perform all calculations in a kinematic analysis of monocot leaf growth. In addition, it allows cell length profiles and leaf elongation rates to be easily extracted, which in turn can be used in separate analyses. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology
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2020
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Volume/pages
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377 p.
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Note
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:
Beemster, Gerrit T.S. [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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