Transgenerational adaptation to heavy metal salts in Arabidopsis
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Date
2011
Authors
Rahavi, Mohammad Reza
Migicovsky, Zoë
Titov, Viktor
Kovalchuk, Igor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Abstract
Exposure to abiotic and biotic stress results in changes in plant physiology and triggers
genomic instability. Recent reports suggest that the progeny of stressed plants also exhibit
changes in genome stability, stress tolerance, and methylation. Here we analyzed whether
exposure to Ni2+, Cd2+, and Cu2+ salts leads to transgenerational changes in homologous
recombination frequency and stress tolerance. We found that the immediate progeny of
stressed plants exhibited an increased rate of recombination. However, when the progeny
of stressed plants was propagated without stress, recombination reverted to normal levels.
Exposure of plants to heavy metals for five consecutive generations (S1–S5) resulted
in recombination frequency being maintained at a high level. Skipping stress following two
to three generations of propagation with 50mM Ni2+ or Cd2+ did not decrease the recombination
frequency, suggesting plant acclimation to upregulated recombination. Analysis of
the progeny of plants exposed to Cu2+ and Ni2+ indicated higher stress tolerance to the
heavy metal parental plants were exposed to. Tolerance was higher in plants propagated
with stress for three to five generations, which resulted in longer roots than plants propagated
on heavy metals for only one to two generations.Tolerancewas also more prominent
upon exposure to a higher concentration of salts.The progeny of stressed plants were also
more tolerant to NaCl and methyl methane sulfonate.
Description
Sherpa Romeo green journal: open access
Keywords
Heavy metal salts , Homologous recombination , Stress tolerance , Transgenerational response , Arabidopsis thaliana
Citation
Rahavi, M. R., Migicovsky, Z., Titov, V., & Kovalchuk, I. (2011). Transgenerational adaptation to heavy metal salts in Arabidopsis. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2(91). doi:3389/fpls.2011.00091