rising from the sea correlations between sulfated polysaccharides and salinity in plants从海洋硫酸多糖之间的相关性和盐度的植物.pdfVIP

Rising from the Sea: Correlations between Sulfated Polysaccharides and Salinity in Plants ˜ Rafael S. Aquino*, Clicia Grativol, Paulo A. S. Mourao ´ ´ ´ ´ Laboratorio de Tecido Conjuntivo, Instituto de Bioquımica Medica and Hospital Universitario Clementino Fraga Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Abstract High salinity soils inhibit crop production worldwide and represent a serious agricultural problem. To meet our ever- increasing demand for food, it is essential to understand and engineer salt-resistant crops. In this study, we evaluated the occurrence and function of sulfated polysaccharides in plants. Although ubiquitously present in marine algae, the presence of sulfated polysaccharides among the species tested was restricted to halophytes, suggesting a possible correlation with salt stress or resistance. To test this hypothesis, sulfated polysaccharides from plants artificially and naturally exposed to different salinities were analyzed. Our results revealed that the sulfated polysaccharide concentration, as well as the degree to which these compounds were sulfated in halophytic species, were positively correlated with salinity. We found that sulfated polysaccharides produced by Ruppia maritima Loisel disappeared when the plant was cultivated in the absence of salt. However, subjecting the glycophyte Oryza sativa Linnaeus to salt stress did not induce the biosynthesis of sulfated polysaccharides but increased the concentration of the carboxylated polysaccharides; this finding suggests that negatively ch