Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Jul 8;4(3):393-411.
doi: 10.3390/plants4030393.

Senescence, Stress, and Reactive Oxygen Species

Ivan Jajic  1 , Tadeusz Sarna  2 , Kazimierz Strzalka  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Senescence, Stress, and Reactive Oxygen Species

Ivan Jajic et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the earliest responses of plant cells to various biotic and abiotic stresses. ROS are capable of inducing cellular damage by oxidation of proteins, inactivation of enzymes, alterations in the gene expression, and decomposition of biomembranes. On the other hand, they also have a signaling role and changes in production of ROS can act as signals that change the transcription of genes that favor the acclimation of plants to abiotic stresses. Among the ROS, it is believed that H₂O₂ causes the largest changes in the levels of gene expression in plants. A wide range of plant responses has been found to be triggered by H₂O₂ such as acclimation to drought, photooxidative stress, and induction of senescence. Our knowledge on signaling roles of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) has been limited by its short lifetime, but recent experiments with a flu mutant demonstrated that singlet oxygen does not act primarily as a toxin but rather as a signal that activates several stress-response pathways. In this review we summarize the latest progress on the signaling roles of ROS during senescence and abiotic stresses and we give a short overview of the methods that can be used for their assessment.

Keywords: abiotic stresses; hydrogen peroxide; leaf senescence; reactive oxygen species; singlet oxygen; superoxide anion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Production and scavenging of ROS in a plant cell. Figure legend: Superoxide dismutase (SOD); Fenton (decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to highly reactive hydroxyl radical in presence of iron); ETC (electron transport chain).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Possible roles of ROS during senescence and abiotic stresses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gan S., Amasino R.M. Making sense of senescence (molecular genetic regulation and manipulation of leaf senescence) Plant. Physiol. 1997;113:313–319. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lee S., Seo P.J., Lee H.J., Park C.M. A nac transcription factor ntl4 promotes reactive oxygen species production during drought-induced leaf senescence in arabidopsis. Plant J. Cell Mol. Biol. 2012;70:831–844. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2012.04932.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Prochazkova D., Sairam R.K., Srivastava G.C., Singh D.V. Oxidative stress and antioxidant activity as the basis of senescence in maize leaves. Plant Sci. 2001;161:765–771. doi: 10.1016/S0168-9452(01)00462-9. - DOI
    1. Selote D.S., Khanna-Chopra R. Drought acclimation confers oxidative stress tolerance by inducing co-ordinated antioxidant defense at cellular and subcellular level in leaves of wheat seedlings. Physiol. Plant. 2006;127:494–506. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-3054.2006.00678.x. - DOI
    1. Silva E.N., Ferreira-Silva S.L., Fontenele A.D.V., Ribeiro R.V., Viégas R.A., Silveira J.A.G. Photosynthetic changes and protective mechanisms against oxidative damage subjected to isolated and combined drought and heat stresses in Jatropha curcas plants. J. Plant Phsiol. 2010;167:1157–1164. doi: 10.1016/j.jplph.2010.03.005. - DOI - PubMed