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Review
. 2021 Jan 28;10(2):261.
doi: 10.3390/cells10020261.

Spermine: Its Emerging Role in Regulating Drought Stress Responses in Plants

Md Mahadi Hasan  1 , Milan Skalicky  2 , Mohammad Shah Jahan  3   4 , Md Nazmul Hossain  5 , Zunaira Anwar  6 , Zheng-Fei Nie  1 , Nadiyah M Alabdallah  7 , Marian Brestic  2   8 , Vaclav Hejnak  2 , Xiang-Wen Fang  1
Affiliations
Review

Spermine: Its Emerging Role in Regulating Drought Stress Responses in Plants

Md Mahadi Hasan et al. Cells. .

Abstract

In recent years, research on spermine (Spm) has turned up a lot of new information about this essential polyamine, especially as it is able to counteract damage from abiotic stresses. Spm has been shown to protect plants from a variety of environmental insults, but whether it can prevent the adverse effects of drought has not yet been reported. Drought stress increases endogenous Spm in plants and exogenous application of Spm improves the plants' ability to tolerate drought stress. Spm's role in enhancing antioxidant defense mechanisms, glyoxalase systems, methylglyoxal (MG) detoxification, and creating tolerance for drought-induced oxidative stress is well documented in plants. However, the influences of enzyme activity and osmoregulation on Spm biosynthesis and metabolism are variable. Spm interacts with other molecules like nitric oxide (NO) and phytohormones such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, and ethylene, to coordinate the reactions necessary for developing drought tolerance. This review focuses on the role of Spm in plants under severe drought stress. We have proposed models to explain how Spm interacts with existing defense mechanisms in plants to improve drought tolerance.

Keywords: abscisic acid; antioxidant enzymes; drought; polyamines; stomata.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest among them.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Spermine biosynthesis in plants. ADC, arginine decarboxylase; AIH, agmatine iminohydrolase; CPA-N, carbamoylputrescine amidohydrolase; SPDS, spermidine synthase; SPMS, spermine synthase; GABA, γ-aminobutyric acid; SAM-S, adenosylmethionine; SAMDC-S, adenosylmethionine decarboxylase; dcSAM, decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine; ACC, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic-acid synthase. Arrows represent synthesis and conversion.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Enhancement of drought-stress tolerance by spermine. Exogenous application of spermine improves the drought tolerance in plants. Rubisco, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase; MDA, malondialdehyde; ROS, reactive oxygen species; Chl, chlorophyll; CO2, carbon dioxide; CA, carbonic anhydrase. Green arrows represent spermine’s actions to reduce drought stress, while red arrows show the direct effects of drought on plants.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spermine (Spm)-induced antioxidant defense and glyoxalase system reduces drought stress in plants. The glyoxalase pathway suppresses methylglyoxal (MG) toxicity. Likewise, the antioxidant enzymes, e.g., superoxide dismutase, SOD; catalase, CAT; peroxidase, POD; glutathione S-transferase, GST; glutathione peroxidase, GPX; dehydroascorbate reductase, DHAR, and monodehydroascorbate reductase, MDHAR, and the non-enzymatic compounds, e.g., phenols and flavonoids, ascorbate, AsA, and glutathione suppress the accumulation of ROS.
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