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Plant Glutathione Peroxidases: Antioxidant Enzymes in Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance

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Glutathione in Plant Growth, Development, and Stress Tolerance

Abstract

In contrast to other eukaryotic organisms, plants are unable to run away from unfavourable conditions; they must cope with different abiotic and biotic stress factors. Under abiotic and biotic stresses, the production of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) can damage the biological membranes, proteins and nucleic acids. However, plants have developed complex defence systems including different non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants as shields to prevent the toxic effects of an increased amount of ROS and RNS. Glutathione peroxidases (GPXs) are important antioxidant enzymes in animals, but plants contain GPX-like (GPXLs) enzymes. In contrast to animal GPXs, plant GPXLs contain cysteine in their active site instead of selenocysteine, and most of them prefer thioredoxin as the electron donor rather than glutathione. In the last 25 years, many researches proved that plant GPXLs also are essential elements of plant stress responses and are important ROS scavengers. Overexpression of GPXLs in different plant species led to increased tolerance against drought, salt, osmotic, heavy metal and particularly oxidative stresses; however, in some cases, it caused decreased tolerance against biotic stresses. In this chapter, we focus on the importance of plant GPXLs in stress responses, highlighting the significance of distinct genes as possible candidates for genetic engineering to improve the yield of agricultural plants under unfavourable environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of the Hungarian National Scientific Research Foundation [grant number OTKA K 105956]. Riyazuddin is funded through the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Programme in Hungary. S.A.K.B. thanks the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and the University of Agriculture Peshawar for the scholarship (grant number 360/SIBGE). K.B. received visiting scholarships from the Campus Mundi Programme that is co-financed by the European Union and the Hungarian government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52, Szeged, H-6726, Hungary

    Krisztina Bela,  Riyazuddin & Jolán Csiszár

  2. Chemical Signalling, INRES, University of Bonn, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 144, Bonn, D-53113, Germany

    Sajid Ali Khan Bangash

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  1. Krisztina Bela
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  2. Sajid Ali Khan Bangash
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  3. Riyazuddin
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  4. Jolán Csiszár
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Correspondence to Krisztina Bela .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

    Mohammad Anwar Hossain

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh

    Mohammad Golam Mostofa

  3. Department of Plant Breeding, CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia, Murcia, Spain

    Pedro Diaz-Vivancos

  4. Department of Botany, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

    David J Burritt

  5. Department of Applied Biological Science, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

    Masayuki Fujita

  6. RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Signaling Pathway Research Unit, Yokohama, Japan

    Lam-Son Phan Tran

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Bela, K., Bangash, S.A.K., Riyazuddin, Csiszár, J. (2017). Plant Glutathione Peroxidases: Antioxidant Enzymes in Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance. In: Hossain, M., Mostofa, M., Diaz-Vivancos, P., Burritt, D., Fujita, M., Tran, LS. (eds) Glutathione in Plant Growth, Development, and Stress Tolerance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66682-2_5

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