Investigation of Warburg Effect Under Salt Stress in Brassica napus
Project no. 23355 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2022
Summary
<p>All living things evolved different defense strategies in order to adapt to the changing environmental conditions. From this point of view, plants are the most interesting group of organisms due to their immobile life style. Although studies on stress responses and resilience in plants have been studied for many years, there are a wide variety of mechanisms that are still unknown and need to be clarified. How photosynthesis, respiration and photorespiration functions and regulated under stress conditions is well known. However, the interaction between different pathways are still under investigation. In recent years, the "Warburg Effect", which has been determined especially in cancer cells and whose mechanism has been investigated, has also been detected in plant cells. The Warburg Effect takes place in conditions where oxygen is abundant in the environment. Under those conditions, cells prefer fermentation to respiration which is inefficent by means of energy when compared. In plants how Warburg effect is activated, its mechanism and its interaction with different metabolic pathways is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to examine whether the Warburg effect is observed in plant cells under abiotic stress conditions and if it is observed, whether it provides an advantage for plant cells.</p><p>Within this scope in our thesis project, in addition to various physiological parameters, we analysed lactate, proline, protein contents, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) enzyme activities were found in leaf and root samples after salt stress treatment (100 mM NaCl) in <em>Brassica napus</em>. activities were compared with the control groups. Differences in expression profiles of two genes encoding prolyl 4-hydroxylase (<em>P4H9</em> and <em>P4H10</em>) which are known to interact with oxygen levels in different organisms under stress conditions. We examined LDH, ADH and PDC enzyme activities in relation to the Warburg effect and observed different activites in leaves and roots. It was determined that they were induced by salt stress, especially in leaves, in salt-stressed groups. There was a correlation between the content of lactate and LDH in the roots. The LDH activity increased in the first days of the stress treatment, while lactate content remained below the control levels. We can predict that increased ADH and PDC activities might be related to lower lactate levels in which lactate might be used. The expression of <em>P4H9</em> and <em>P4H10</em> was induced by salt stress however, a different profile was observed in roots and leaves. <em>P4H9</em> in the roots and <em>P4H10</em> in the leaves were increased under salt stress. In accordance with the evaluation of the results, we can predict that the Warburg Effect, might be an additional energy source to support growth and development under stress conditions especially in the leaves. Detailed studies should be conducted about the role of Warburg Effect in plants.</p>