Responses of Growth, Oxidative Injury and Chloroplast Ultrastructure in Leaves of Lolium perenne and Festuca arundinacea to Elevated O3 Concentrations

Abstract

The effects of increasing atmospheric ozone (O3) concentrations on cool-season plant species have been well studied, but little is known about the physiological responses of cool-season turfgrass species such as Lolium perenne and Festuca arundinacea exposed to short-term acute pollution with elevated O3 concentrations (80 ppb and 160 ppb, 9 h d−1) for 14 days, which are widely planted in urban areas of Northern China. The current study aimed to investigate and compare O3 sensitivity and differential changes in growth, oxidative injury, antioxidative enzyme activities, and chloroplast ultrastructure between the two turf-type plant species. The results showed that O3 decreased significantly biomass regardless of plant species. Under 160 ppb O3, total biomass of L. perenne and F. arundinacea significantly decreased by 55.3% and 47.8% (p < 0.05), respectively. No significant changes were found in visible injury and photosynthetic pigment contents in leaves of the two grass species exposed to 80 ppb O3, except for 160 ppb O3. However, both 80 ppb and 160 ppb O3 exposure induced heavily oxidative stress by high accumulation of malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species in leaves and damage in chloroplast ultrastructure regardless of plant species. Elevated O3 concentration (80 ppb) increased significantly the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidaseby 77.8%, 1.14-foil and 34.3% in L. perenne leaves, and 19.2%, 78.4% and 1.72-fold in F. arundinacea leaves, respectively. These results showed that F. arundinacea showed higher O3 tolerance than L. perenne. The damage extent by elevated O3 concentrations could be underestimated only by evaluating foliar injury or chlorophyll content without considering the internal physiological changes, especially in chloroplast ultrastructure and ROS accumulation.

Dynamics of foliar concentrations of photosynthetic pigments in woody and herbaceous plant species in the territory of an industrial city

“…At the same time, ROS exposure causes chlorophyll degradation, inhibition of chlorophyll syn thesis enzymes, and other deleterious effects in plants (Asada, 1994;Aarti et al, 2006). In particular, a decrease in the concentration of Chl in plants has been reported under several conditions associated with atmospheric pollution (Thawale et al, 2011;Hariram et al, 2018;Mukherjee et al, 2019;Banerjee et al, 2021), as well as under influence of individual air polluting substances, including SO 2 (Mohasseli et al, 2017;Duan et al, 2019), NO 2 (Yue et al, 2020) and ozone (Singh et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2022).…”

Drought Stress and High Temperature Affect the Antioxidant Metabolism of Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Anthers and Reduce Pollen Fertility

“…It was found that high temperatures eventually lead to a decrease in the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, and CAT) related to antioxidant metabolism in reproductive organs [32]. The contents of AsA and GSH in leaves of tall fescue and perennial ryegrass decreased under high-temperature stress [33]. The activities of enzymes (APX, DHAR, MDHAR, and GR) related to the AsA-GSH cycle were also affected by high temperatures.…”