biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 59:193-197, 2015 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-014-0464-z

Extracellular ATP alleviates the salicylic acid-induced inhibition of cell viability and respiration through a Ca²⁺-dependent mechanism

H. Q. Feng^1,*, D. D. Guan¹, J. Y. Bai¹, L. Y. Jia¹, Y. Fang¹, K. Sun^1,*

¹ College of Life Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu, P.R. China

Extracellular ATP (eATP) has been considered as signalling compound to mediate several physiological processes. Here we show that eATP played a role in alleviating the salicylic acid (SA)-induced inhibition of cell viability and respiration in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Bright Yellow-2) suspension cells. Exogenous SA at higher concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, or 0.7 mM) caused a significant reduction in respiratory O₂ uptake or cell viability. The addition of exogenous ATP alleviated the SA-induced reductions in cell viability and respiration, but the effect was dependent on the concentrations of either exogenous SA or ATP. Further study shows that the alleviative effects of exogenous ATP were abolished by the addition of GdCl₃ (an inhibitor of Ca²⁺ channels) or EGTA (a Ca²⁺ chelator). These results suggest that this role of extracellular ATP could be related to a Ca²⁺ signalling pathway.

Keywords: Nicotiana tabacum; tobacco suspension cells

Subjects: extracellular ATP; salicylic acid; calcium; respiration rate; cell viability; tobacco

Received: April 8, 2014; Revised: July 17, 2014; Accepted: July 29, 2014; Published: January 1, 2015  Show citation