Elsevier

Journal of Plant Physiology

Volumes 234–235, March–April 2019, Pages 133-137
Journal of Plant Physiology

Short communication
The effect of ultraviolet-C and precursor feeding on stilbene biosynthesis in spruce Picea jezoensis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2019.02.002Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examines the effects of p-coumaric (CoA) and caffeic (CaA) acids on stilbene biosynthesis in one-year-old needles of Picea jezoensis (Lindl. et Gord.) Fisch ex Carr. under control conditions and after ultraviolet (UV-C) irradiation. HPLC analysis revealed that while UV-C irradiation slightly affected the total stilbene content, CoA and CaA feeding increased the total content of stilbenes by 1.2–1.3-fold. UV-C treatment combined with CoA-feeding of the P. jezoensis cuttings exerted the most pronounced stimulatory effect on stilbene accumulation leading to the total stilbene content of 9.18 mg/g of dry weight or DW. This increase correlated with the elevated transcription of the stilbene synthase PjSTS1a and PjSTS1b genes. UV-C treatment in combination with CaA feeding of P. jezoensis did not considerably influence stilbene content. These results revealed a positive effect of UV-C radiation and phenolic precursors on the content of stilbenes in spruce needles.

Introduction

Stilbenes are natural compounds that occur in a number of unrelated plant families, including Ericaceae, e.g. bilberry and blueberries (Kiselev, 2011; Lyons et al., 2003; Rimando and Cody, 2005); Fabaceae, e.g. peanut (Sobolev, 2008); Gnetaceae, e.g. gnetum (Yao et al., 2005); Pinacea, e.g. pine, spruce (Harju and Venäläinen, 2012); Poaceae, e.g. sorghum (Yu et al., 2005); Polygonaceae, e.g. knotweed, rhubarb (Matsuda et al., 2004; Vastano et al., 2000); and Vitaceae, e.g. grape (Larronde et al., 2003; Schmidlin et al., 2008; Lambert et al., 2013). Stilbenes are organic compounds with two phenolic rings with the basic formula C6-C2-C6. Monomeric stilbenes may undergo different types of modifications, such as oligomerization, glycosylation, methoxylation, and prenylation, and also give rise to other stilbenoids (Dubrovina and Kiselev, 2017; Fig. S1). In plants, stilbenes appear to function as phytoalexins, i.e. protectants against various biotic and abiotic stresses.

The presence of over 10 individual stilbenes has been shown in different Pinaceae species: trans- and cis-astringin (piceatannol glucoside), trans- and cis-isorhapontin (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-3′-methoxystilbene 3-glucopyranoside), trans-piceid (resveratrol glucoside), trans-piceatannol (3,4,3′,5′-tetrahydroxy-trans-stilbene), trans-resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene), trans-isorhapontigenin (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-3′-methoxystilbene), and eight stilbene glucoside dimers, designated as piceasides A-H (Hammerbacher et al., 2011; Jyske et al., 2014; Kiselev et al., 2016a; Latva-Mäenpää et al., 2013; Li et al., 2008, 2012; Lieutier et al., 2003; Mannila and Talvitie, 1992; Mulat et al., 2014; Münzenberger et al., 1990; Slimestad, 1998; Solhaug, 1990; Underwood and Pearce, 1991).

Although much has been learned about stilbene biosynthesis in recent years (Chong et al., 2009; Jeandet et al., 2002), the formation of tetrahydroxy-stilbenes (piceatannol and its derivates) in the Pinaceae family remains unresolved. In the literature, stilbenes in Pinaceae are described as constitutive compounds, and little is known about the mechanisms regulating their biosynthesis. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the stilbene content and the transcription of stilbene synthase (STS) genes in the needles of P.jezoensis after ultraviolet C (UV-C) radiation and p-coumaric (CoA) and caffeic acids (CaA) supplementation.

Section snippets

Plant materials

For stilbene extraction and PjSTS expression analysis we used needles of a 20-year-old spruce P. jezoensis tree growing in the natural conditions on brown soil at the Botanical Garden-Institute FEB RAS (Kiselev et al., 2016b). We used 1-year-old spring needles (phenological growth stage 10 NB, needle elongation, according to Finn et al., 2007), because the needles showed the highest stilbene content and PjSTS gene expression (Kiselev et al., 2016a). The cuttings were placed in individual

Stilbene biosynthesis in the needles of spruce Picea jezoensis

The spruce branch was divided into four cuttings of 10 cm long and the cuttings were used for the treatments (Fig. 1a ). The collected cuttings contained young light green needles (Fig. 1a). The UV-C treatment led to the death of young needles 24 h after treatment, and the number of the yellow needles considerably increased up to 95% of all young needles (UV-C, Fig. 1b). However, CoA feeding prevented this effect lowering the number of yellow needles after UV-C irradiation of the CoA treated

Discussion

Data from the literature data show that conifers contain higher amounts of stilbenes than foliage plants and can be considered as the major source of stilbenes (Chong et al., 2009; Dubrovina and Kiselev, 2017). High levels of trans-astringin in all of the used tissues types (needles, root, and bark) and the high trans-isorhapontin content in the root bark both contributed to the high stilbenes content in conifers. Similar to other studies (Dubrovina and Kiselev, 2017), the present investigation

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (19-04-00063-а).

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