Metabolism of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Cytoplasmic Male-Sterile Cotton Anther

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plant cell, including superoxide (O2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA), are thought to be important inducible factors of cell apoptosis if excessively accumulated in cells. To elucidate the metabolic mechanism of ROS production and scavenging in anthers of the cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) cotton. CMS line, maintainer, and hybrid F1 anthers, were employed for studying the relationship between CMS and metabolism of ROS, by comparing ROS changes in the sterile and fertile anthers at different developmental stages. The results showed that during the abortion preliminary stage (sporogenous cell division stage), anthers of CMS line had higher contents of O2, H2O2, and MDA than those of maintainer or hybrid F1. Simultaneously, the higher activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) in scavenging ROS were measured in the anthers of the CMS line, indicating that an increase of ROS in anthers of abortion preliminary stage had an inducible effect on the antioxidant enzymes. But during the abortion peak of CMS anther (pollen mother cell meiosis stage), on the one hand, contents of O2. H2O2, and MDA were extraordinarily high in CMS anthers, on the other hand, the activities of SOD, CAT, and POD were excessively low, which disrupted the balance between the production and elimination of ROS and led to pollen mother cells apoptosis at this stage. In the following two stages (uninucleate microspore stage and mature pollen stage), the contents of O2 and H2O2 in the aborted anthers were approximated to contents in the fertile anthers of the maintainer and hybrid F1. However, MDA contents were continuously raised and enzymic activities of SOD, CAT, and POD were consistently decreased in sterile anthers, which indicated that ROS still had harmful effects on the anthers after the apoptosis of the male cells. Excessive accumulation of O2, H2O2, and MDA and significant reduction of ROS scavenging-enzyme activities were coinstantaneous with male cells apoptosis in the anthers of the cotton CMS line. But when the restorer gene was transferred into the CMS line, excessive production of ROS could be eliminated in the anthers of hybrid F1.