Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Sugargraze is a moderately drought tolerant sweet sorghum hybrid which is ideal for grazing, winter stand over and pit silage.A major advantage that Sugargraze has over other forages is its very high sugar content which improves feed quality thus increasing palatability and results in significantly reduced feed wastage.This study explored the influence of hyperosmotic stress on plant development, ROS accumulation, antioxidant capacity and the extent of cell death.Heat shock protein (Hsp70) expression immunoblotting assays were used to demonstrate whether the various treatment conditions induced stress within natural physiological parameters for the experimental material.This was coupled with the separation, visualization and identification of abundant proteins in Sugargraze leaves in response to hyperosmotic stress using twodimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) in combination with mass spectrometry (MS).The results showed that hyperosmotic stress significantly influences plant development by reducing plant biomass and increasing the levels of ROS accumulation, proline content and subsequently reducing total chlorophyll content.An over accumulation of ROS in the form of hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation was observed in the stressed plants which was supported by the extent of cell death.Although an increase in antioxidant enzyme activity (in the form of total enzymatic activity or individual isoform activity) in response to hyperosmotic stress was observed, this increase was not sufficient to counter the deleterious effects caused by the stress xvi
Author: Xolisa Nxele
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1462536550