The occurrence and function of short chain length fatty acids in plants

Berrie, A. M. M.; Don, Ronald; Buller, David C.; Alam, Mahbood; Parker, W.

doi:10.1016/0304-4211(76)90068-7

Cited by 35 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Andrews (1) proposed that ABA may be present in dormant embryos of wild oat and the volatile acids have been detected in grains of both cultivated and wild oat (3). Either, both, or neither of these inhibitors could be involved in the control of dormancy and germination in Avena spp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9 Ripe grains were stored at a constant temperature of 20 C in darkness until required for analysis.Single large batches of grain were collected. Prior to beginning the routine extractions, a model system employing replication at all levels was carried out for each acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9). We were interested in seeking a correlation between the content of fatty acid and physiological behavior in Steam distillation of the aqueous solution obtained from the common oat was adopted because of problems associated with subsequent partitioning against acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

et al. 1979

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Species of Avena differ markedly in their levels of pre-and post-harvest dormancy. These species offer the opportunity of determining if dormancy is related to the endogenous level of growth inhibitor. Germinability in two species of differing levels of dormancy, common oat Avena sadva L., and wild oat Avena fatus L. was assessed as were the contents of abscisic acid and volatile fatty acids of chain length C6-ClO. In A. sativa which did not possess postharvest dormancy there was no correlation between germination and inhibitor levels but in A. fatua the relationship between the content of fatty acid and dormancy was good. The loss of these fatty acids in dry storage by evaporation could explain after ripening.In oats (A vena spp.) there is a considerable range of degrees of dormancy from the almost nondormant common oat (A. sativa L.) which at most shows a brief postharvest dormancy, through the appreciable dormancy of the wild oat (A.fatua L.) to the profound dormancy of the winter wild oat (A. ludoviciana Dur.), especially with respect to the upper grain of the dissemule. The level of dormancy in this last species during maturation is less than when fully ripe (17,21). However, Morgan and Berrie (17) showed that if immature grains were dried before testing these dried grains showed a degree of dormancy equivalent to the mature grain.Wright (25) showed that water-stressed plants had elevated levels of an ABA-containing complex, possibly produced to control stomatal aperture (12). It might be concluded that ABA would accumulate in plant tissues in which the water contents were reduced compared to average normal tissues. Inasmuch as ABA is a well known germination inhibitor, such accumulation could explain the pattern of emergence found in maturing A vena spp.With the possible exception of ABA, naturally occurring plant growth inhibitors are considered to be nonspecific (15). This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9 Ripe grains were stored at a constant temperature of 20 C in darkness until required for analysis.Single large batches of grain were collected. Prior to beginning the routine extractions, a model system employing replication at all levels was carried out for each acid. Isotope dilution was employed to estimate efficiency of extraction and recoveries were also estimated by "seeding" samples with known amounts of acid. From these experiments the coefficient of variation for each acid was determined. In the working analyses the final analysis was carried out in triplicate and the average of these was employed, using the appropriate coefficient of variation to estimate the standard deviation. It is this value which is reported in the tables.Extraction

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9). We were interested in seeking a correlation between the content of fatty acid and physiological behavior in Steam distillation of the aqueous solution obtained from the common oat was adopted because of problems associated with subsequent partitioning against acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

et al. 1979

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“…Short chain length fatty acids (chain length C6 -C12) are known to inhibit seed germination, and in the case of lettuce to impose a light requirement (1).…”

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Effect of Temperature on the Short Chain Fatty Acid-induced Inhibition of Lettuce Seed Germination

Stewart

Berrie²

1979

Plant Physiol.

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In lettuce, Lactuca sativa short chain fatty acids (C6 -Co) vary in their effectiveness as inhibitors of germination according to temperature; the higher the temperature, the greater the inhibition. A linear relationship exists between temperature and the dose causing half-maximal germination. Nonanoic (C9) acid is the most effective.When extrapolated to the abscissa, really zero concentration of acid, the regression lines intercept at 36.8 C ± 2.6 C. It may be that at this temperature the whole membrane becomes fluid without acid being present but with acid there was complete fluidizing at lower temperatures the degree of fluidity being determined by the amount and type of acid present.This speculation distinguishes between the fluidizing of the bulk lipids and the character of the lipid layer that may be around certain key membrane proteins.Lettuce seed germination is dependent on temperature, there being a value above which there is a requirement for light. The need for this light requirement can be overcome if the seed is treated with GA (4) and/or cytokinin (3). On the other hand the temperature at which the seed becomes light-sensitive can be lowered if they are exposed to coumarin (9) and possibly ABA (5).Short chain length fatty acids (chain length C6 -C12) are known to inhibit seed germination, and in the case of lettuce to impose a light requirement (1).Inasmuch as these fatty acids might be expected to affect lipid membranes, their action might vary according to the temperature of application. With an increasing level of low mol wt acid incorporated into the lipid membrane it could be predicted that there would be a change in the temperature at which the membrane undergoes a change in its functional characteristics.It was this hypothesis that we tested. MATERIALS AND METHODSA batch of lettuce seed (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Grand Rapids) which became light-requiring at high temperatures was obtained from the Page Seed Co., Greene, N.Y. (Batch No. 014576). At 30 C the germination was less than 1%, at 20 C 16%, and when treated with red light, 369 mJ cm2, the germination rose to 8 and 90%1o, respectively.Seeds were counted into batches of 50 prior to dispensing over a 4.25-cm Whatman No. 3 filter paper lining a 4.5-cm Petri dish base. These seed lots were held at -20 C until required. Prior to dispensing the seed the filter paper was loaded with an amount of acid in ether that would give the desired molar concentration when 1.5 ml of H20 were added after the ether had evaporated. Zero concentration of acid (control) was treated with solvent. A 61 range of concentrations was chosen to encompass the sharp transition from zero effect to maximum effect of each acid and a number of temperatures from 12 to 28 C selected. The temperatures were held to better than ± 1 C.In this experiment the seeds were irradiated 2 hr after the start with red light (656 nm, band width 10 nm) obtained by filtering the emitted radiation from a 12-v 100-w quartz halogen lamp through 20 cm of H20 and an interference filter (Ba...

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“…While the growth-promoting activity of monocarboxylic acids in this study appears to be a surprising result based upon the inhibitory responses generally associated with short chain fatty acids (5,7,12,14,17,22,24,27,33,34), a significant number of previously identified, dormancy-breaking chemicals (6) are also weak acids as well as growth inhibitors in other biological systems. The diverse chemical structures of these compounds have made it difficult to arrive at a unified hypothesis as to how However, while these weak acids contain various anionic components, they all possess a dissociable proton.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Seed Dormancy in Red Rice

Cohn¹,

Chiles²,

Hughes³

et al. 1987

Plant Physiol.

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The weak acid character of many previously identified, but otherwise chemically dissimilar, dormancy-breaking compounds may contribute to their physiological activity. To test this idea, short chain monocarboxylic acids of one to six carbons, for which no previous reports of such activity exist, were incubated with dormant, dehulled red rice (Oryza sativa) seeds. Greater than 90% germination was observed after 24 hours of imbibition with 19 millimolar formic, 53 millimolar acetic, 20 millimolar propionic, 28 millimolar butyric, 20 millimolar valeric, or 16 millimolar caproic acid followed by 7 to 14 days incubation on water at 30°C. Dormancy-breaking activity was pH-dependent. Incubation medium pH values that favored formation of the protonated species resulted in the highest germination percentages. There was no promotive effect of medium pH itself in the range of 3 to 7. In contrast, germination of intact seeds was less than 40% in the presence of 55 millimolar monocarboxylic acids at pH 3, unless seeds were partially dry-afterripened. The pHdependent activity of these acids was maintained during afterripening of intact seeds. The results are consistent with the idea that the dissociable proton of weak acids is responsible for their dormancy-breaking activity. Many other weak acids may break seed dormancy but have been overlooked due to the rigid pH dependence necessary for activity.The pH of the incubation medium modulates the dormancybreaking activity ofgibberellic acid (8,13,21, 28,30,31), nitrite (9, 10), azide, cyanide, and hydroxylamine (11 ent with the concept that dormancy-breaking activity is due to the neutral form of each substance rather than a general effect of the acidity of the incubation medium, is provided. MATERIALS AND METHODSMature, awnless, strawhulled red rice seeds (Oryza sativa) were obtained at the South Farm, Rice Research Station, Crowley, LA in 1985. Harvesting, processing, and storage procedures used were those previously described (9). Air-dried seeds were stored at -I 5°C until use.Germination tests were performed using the system described by Cohn and Hughes (11). Seeds were incubated in buffered aqueous solutions of formic (pK=3.75), acetic (pK=4.76), propionic (pK=4.87), butyric (pK=4.82), valeric (pK=4.82), or caproic (pK=4.83) acid for 24 h. Germination was scored during a subsequent 7-or 14-d incubation on water. The pH of each test solution was recorded after incubation to check for sufficient buffering capacity during imbibition. All incubations were performed at 30°C in darkness. Each treatment consisted of five replications, and experiments were repeated at least three times. All chemicals employed were reagent grade and stored at room temperature. Monocarboxylic acid solutions were buffered with 25 mm citrate-phosphate and prepared fresh daily. Dilute HCI or NaOH were used to adjust the pH of test solutions. When required, intact seeds were dehulled by hand just prior to treatments. For experiments investigating the effect ofdry-afterripening at 30°C upon chemi...

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The occurrence and function of short chain length fatty acids in plants

Cited by 35 publications

References 14 publications

Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

Effect of Temperature on the Short Chain Fatty Acid-induced Inhibition of Lettuce Seed Germination

Seed Dormancy in Red Rice

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