Celastrol, produced by Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. enhances defense response in cucumber seedlings against diverse environmental stresses

• Published in: Journal of plant biology = Singmul Hakhoe chi Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 82 - 92
• Main Authors: Zhu, Li-jun, Deng, Xing-guang, Zou, Li-juan, Li, Peng-xu, Wu, Jun-qiang, Zhang, Da-wei, Lin, Honghui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.02.2017; Springer Nature B.V; 한국식물학회
• Subjects: abscisic acid; Biomedical and Life Sciences; cold stress; Cucumbers; Cucumis sativus; Damage; Environmental stress; enzyme activity; Enzymes; Gene expression; gene expression regulation; genes; Life Sciences; light intensity; Original Article; Photosystem; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Plant cells; Plant Ecology; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Sciences; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Polyethylene glycol; Pretreatment; Seedlings; stress tolerance; Stresses; Tripterygium wilfordii; triterpenoids; Vegetables; 생물학; Abscisic acid; Antioxidative enzymes; Cucumber; Celastrol; Environmental stress
• ISSN: 1226-9239; 1867-0725
• DOI: 10.1007/s12374-016-0390-z

Celastrol is an active triterpenoid compound isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F.. Many reports have highlighted that celastrol is an effective, safe and desirable approach to the treatment of cancers. However, their biological function during environmental stresses in plants is rarely reported. In the present study, the effects of celastrol on the tolerance against high light (HL), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cold stress in cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.) were investigated. Celastrol pretreatment could enhance cucumber seedlings stress tolerance at a concentration of 1 μg ml –1 . The results showed that pretreatment with 1 μg ml –1 celastrol clearly induced the activities of antioxidative enzymes, which subsequently alleviated stress-induced oxidative damage in plant cells. We also provided evidence that celastrol upregulated ABA biosynthetic gene NCED2 expression and ABA accumulation in cucumber seedlings, which resulted to the enhanced tolerance in response to environmental stresses. Furthermore, the celastrol-pretreated seedlings showed less photosystem damaged caused by the stress conditions, when compared with the control. Therefore, our findings provide a novel role of celastrol in plant against environmental stresses and indicate that the celastrol-induced activities of antioxidative enzymes and ABA content might contribute to the stress tolerance.