Ten anthocyanin components have been detected in roots of purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detection and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. All the anthocyanins were exclusively cyanidins or peonidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucosides and their acylated derivatives. The total anthocyanin content in purple sweet potato powder obtained by solid-phase extraction was 66 mg g(-1). A strong capacity of purple sweet potato anthocyanins (PSPA) to scavenge reactive oxygen species (superoxide, hydroxyl radical) and the stable 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl organic free radical was found in vitro using the electron spin resonance technique. To determine the functional roles of anthocyanins in leaves in vivo, for the first time, supplemental anthocyanins were infiltrated into leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana double mutant of the ecotype Landsberg erecta (tt3tt4) deficient in anthocyanin biosynthesis. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging showed that anthocyanins significantly ameliorated the inactivation of photosystems II during prolonged high-light (1300 micromol m(-2) s(-1)) exposure. Comet assay of DNA revealed an obvious role of supplemental PSPA in alleviating DNA damage by high light in leaves. Our results suggest that anthocyanins could function in vitro and in vivo to alleviate the direct or indirect oxidative damage of the photosynthetic apparatus and DNA in plants caused by high-light stress.

A protocol was established for in vitro selection of salinity tolerant somaclonal variations from suspension cultured calli of triploid bermudagrass cv. TifEagle. To induce somaclonal variations the calli were subcultured for 18 months and were then subject to three-round selections for salt-tolerant calli by placing on solid medium containing 0.3 M NaCl for 10 days followed by a recovery for 2 weeks. The surviving calli were regenerated on regeneration medium containing 0.1 M NaCl. Three somaclonal variant lines (2, 71, and 77) were obtained and analyzed. The selected somaclonal lines showed higher relative growth and less injury than TifEagle under salt stress, indicating that they increased salt tolerance. In addition, they had higher relative water content and lower electrolyte leakage than TifEagle after withholding irrigation, indicating that they also increased drought tolerance. The three somaclonal variant lines had higher proline content than TifEagle under normal growth condition. The line 71 had a higher K(+)/Na(+) ratio, whereas the lines 2 and 77 had higher CAT activity under control and salt stress conditions, indicating that different mechanisms for salt tolerance might exist in these three lines.

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Grain quality is a critical component of high-yielding varieties to ensure acceptance by an ever-increasing population and living standards. During the past years, several photorespiration bypasses have been introduced into C3 plants, among which our GOC and GCGT bypasses exhibit increased photosynthesis and yield in rice. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are still no reports referring to effects of the bypasses on grain quality. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the effect of GOC and GCGT bypasses on grain quality, and the mechanism of how photorespiratory bypasses affect grain quality was also investigated. Compared with the WT of Zhonghua 11, GOC4 and GCGT20 plants had higher nutritional quality and cooking quality as grain protein content was significantly increased by 11.27% and 14.97%, and alkali spreading value was significantly increased by 7.6% and 4.63%, respectively, whereas appearance quality appears to be negatively affected since the chalky rice rate was increased by 32.6% and 68%, respectively. Analyses also demonstrated that the changes in grain quality may result from the increased total nitrogen and constrained carbohydrate transport in the transgenic plants. Altogether, the results not only suggest that the increased photosynthesis and yield by introducing the photorespiratory bypasses can significantly affect grain quality parameters for rice, either positively or negatively, but also imply that the coordination of source–sink transport may play important roles in grain quality formation for high-yielding crops via increased photosynthetic efficiency.