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Effect of red light and Ca~(2+) on cell wall enzyme activities associated with elongation of hypocotyls of Phaseolus radiatus L.

Long Cheng, Zhang Zhiliang, Seng Zengyou, Yan Jiqiong

Department of Biology, East China Normal University. Shanghai 200062

Abstract

In darkness, segments of hypocotyls from etiolated Phaseolus radiatus L. seedlings showed high growth rate in Ca~(2+)-free medium, but their elongation was inhibited when Ca~(2+) (1 mmol/L) was applied. Red light inhibited the elongation of segments with or without Ca~(2+) in the medium, and the inhibition was more significant when Ca~(2+) was present. We found that the activity of covalently bound peroxidase strongly increased, the activities of covalently bound #beta#-1,4-glcanase and #beta#-1,3-glcanase markedly decreased during inhibition of elongation. These findings indicated that these enzymes were responsible for hypocotyl elongation. Profound changes occurred during the time 2-4 h after darkness or red light treatment. Otherwise, the changes in enzyme activity of cell wall would be more noticeable when hypocotyls were treated by a combination of red light and Ca~(2+) than by either red light or Ca~(2+) alone.

Key words: #beta#-1;Ca~(2+);Phaseolus radiatus;Hypocotyl;Elongation Peroxidase;Red light;3-glucanase;4-glucanase

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Citing This Article：

Long Cheng, Zhang Zhiliang, Seng Zengyou, Yan Jiqiong. Effect of red light and Ca~(2+) on cell wall enzyme activities associated with elongation of hypocotyls of Phaseolus radiatus L.. Acta Physiol Sin 1997; 49 (2): (in Chinese with English abstract).