1Department of Biotechnology, Bengal College of Engineering and Technology, Durgapura-713 212, India.
2Department of Biological Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata-700 032, India.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: bcmr@mahendra.iacs.res.in
†Present address: Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee-37996-4531, USA.
In the present study the effect of methylglyoxal on detached leaf senescence of six plant species, viz. carrot, solanum, papaya, basil, ribbed gourd and rice was investigated. When the detached leaves were kept for a fixed time period, the methylglyoxal treated leaves could significantly arrest senescence in all the plant species tested, which was evident by the retention of structural integrity as well as of chlorophyll and protein contents. However, pyruvate had a very mild effect though it has structural similarity with methylglyoxal. Comparison of activity profiles of peroxidase, glyoxalase I and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in freshly excised, senesced and methylglyoxal treated leaves showed that the enzyme activities of methylglyoxal treated leaves closely resembled that of the freshly excised leaves.
Kinetin, leaf senescence, methylglyoxal, pyruvate
