Oxygen (O2) is the most crucial substrate for numerous biochemical processes in plants. Its deprivation is a critical factor that affects plant growth and may lead to death if it lasts for a long time. However, various biotic and abiotic factors cause O2 deprivation, leading to hypoxia and anoxia in plant tissues. To survive under hypoxia and/or anoxia, plants deploy various mechanisms such as fermentation paths, reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), antioxidant enzymes, aerenchyma, and adventitious root formation, while nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), and nitric oxide (NO) have shown numerous beneficial roles through modulating these mechanisms. However, the end product of nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway, the NO is toxic if accumulated. Thus, its scavenging or inhibition is equally important for plant survival.
Hypoxia and anoxia result in the modification of various normal metabolic paths [7]. Thus, they usually inhibit respiration, photosynthesis, nitrogen assimilation, biological nitrogen fixation, water and nutrient uptake, and stomata closure in plants [7][8][9][10][11] through a reduced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen (NADH) ratio (NAD+/NADH), and cell viability [12]. Meanwhile, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) is triggered, which severely damages the cell components [13]. Moreover, during hypoxia and anoxia, a drop in pH causes cytoplasmic acidosis which affects numerous metabolic activities that may even contribute to plant death [14]. Overall, hypoxia and anoxia have numerous deleterious effects on plant metabolism (Figure 1).
Nitrate is not only an important form of nitrogen (N) source to plants but also a signaling molecule [39]. It is usually a major form of N in aerobic soil, and its uptake by plant roots is achieved through NO3− transporters [40]. After being uptaken by roots, NO3− is reduced to NO2− by an enzyme called NR in the cytosol or plasma membrane or stored in the vacuole or transported to shoots and leaves for subsequent reduction [15]. Under normoxia, NO2− is transported to plastids/chloroplasts and is reduced to ammonium (NH4+) by nitrite reductase (NiR, EC 1.7.7.1). Then, glutamine synthetase/glutamate-oxoglutarate aminotransferase (GS, EC 6.3.1.2)/GOGAT, EC 1.4.1.13) assimilates NH4+ into amino acids. However, during hypoxia and anoxia, the NO3− or NH4+ assimilation path to amino acid as well as NO3− transport to the aerial parts is greatly reduced [41]. For example, O2 deficiency decreases NO3− and NH4+ assimilation and N incorporation into amino acids in various plant species as compared to normoxia [42][43]. Although N incorporation into amino acids is inhibited during O2 deficiency, several pieces of research have shown that NR is highly activated and NO3− is reduced to NO2− [44].
Several previous studies have shown that NO3− and NR are beneficial for hypoxia and anoxia tolerance. Germinating seeds generally experience hypoxic and anoxic conditions [45][46][47] due to the compaction and hindrance of O2 diffusion by the outermost layers of seeds [48]. Studies have reported that NO3− is beneficial during seed germination. For example, supplementation or priming with NO3− increases the viability of germination in seeds of various plants [49][50][51]. Light and temperature influence seed germination, while NO3− can reduce the dependency on environmental factors such as light [52] and temperature [53] during germination. Moreover, NO3− can promote germination in seeds during salt, metal, and heat stresses [54][55][56]. The mechanisms of seed germination by NO3− might be due to NO production in cytosol and mitochondria through the reductive pathways [47]. Similarly, NO3− has been shown to increase activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) and superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) during the germination process [57], which could scavenge ROS, thus preventing oxidative damage and promoting germination.
Waterlogging reduces several nutrients in plants, affecting plant metabolism [58], while the supplementation of NO3− increases the uptake of nutrients such as N, P, Fe, and Mn [59]. Nitrate can improve cytoplasmic acidification caused by anoxia in plants [60][61] while decreasing fermentative enzymes such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, EC 1.1.1.27), pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC, EC 4.1.1.1), and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH, EC 1.1.1.1) [62]. Lower levels of lactate and ethanol in plant roots [10][62] and an increase in the ATP level were observed in NO3−-treated plants during waterlogging [62], which suggest that NO3− is highly beneficial to reducing toxic metabolites while increasing the energy status of waterlogged plants. Antioxidants such as SOD, CAT, ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11), and guaiacol peroxidase (POD, EC 1.11.1.7) remove O2− and H2O2 [63][64].
Hypoxia and anoxia in roots caused by flooding decrease chlorophyll content in the leaves of plants, thus decreasing the plant biomass and photosynthesis rate [11]. Nitrate is more beneficial in terms of biomass, net photosynthesis rate, chlorophyll, and protein content as compared to NH4+ and glycine [65][66]. Moreover, the concentration of metabolites such as sucrose, γ-aminobutyrate, succinate, and nucleoside triphosphate are reduced significantly in the absence of NO3− during hypoxia in maize root [60]. Alanine aminotransferase (AlaAT, EC 2.6.1.2), via the reversible conversion of pyruvate and glutamate to alanine and 2-oxoglutarate, is involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism [67]. The foliar spraying of NO3− during waterlogging increases AlaAT and GOGAT activities along with an increase in amino acid in plants [68], suggesting that NO3− is involved in regulating both glycolysis and the TCA cycle during O2 deficiency. Redox imbalance during hypoxia and anoxia directly affects cellular metabolisms [69]. Various studies have reported that NO3− supplementation to hypoxic and anoxic plant tissues can improve the redox state [15][70][71]. For example, NO3− and NR maintain redox balance during hypoxia in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) [12].
Nitrate reduction via NR can delay cell death during hypoxia and delay the anoxic symptoms in plants [72], while its inhibition can significantly disturb the growth [71]. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) mutant plants lacking NR reductase are more sensitive to O2 deprivation as compared to wild types by showing symptoms of rapid wilting, more ethanol and lactate production, and less ATP generation [70], suggesting the role of NO3− is due to its reduction to NO2−. NR plays a role in the maintenance of energy status for nitrogen fixation under O2-limited conditions in Medicago truncatula nodules [73]. The use of NR inhibitors in the root system of nodulated alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) results in a significant decrease in the ATP/ADP ratio under flooding and salinity stresses [5]. Waterlogging significantly degrades membrane lipids [74], while NO3− and NR activity can delay the anoxia-induced degradation of membrane lipids in plant cells [75]. Higher expression of NR in cucumber (Cucumis sativus) than tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) was associated with a high tolerance of hypoxia in the roots [76]. During hypoxia and anoxia, NR plays an important role in plant biology by regulating NO production by supplying electrons to NOFNiR and truncated hemoglobin [77]. The regulation of NO is critical, as it is a signaling and also toxic molecule if it is accumulated in a higher amount in a cell [78]. Overall, both NO3−and NR are involved in hypoxia and anoxia tolerance with numerous benefits, which suggests that NO2− is also involved in the mechanisms. However, long-term O2 limitation would affect the NR acclivity, thus, again, questioning plants’ survival during O2-limitation conditions. For example, the NR level increases during O2 limitation conditions, while NR-mRNA remains constant during the early hours of O2 limitation and decreases after 48 h [72], suggesting long-term O2 limitation affects its activity. Moreover, NO, which is produced by NR itself, also decreases the level of NR protein through posttranslational modifications and ubiquitylation by affecting amino acids involved in binding the essential flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and molybdenum cofactors [28][79]. Therefore, O2 limitation and a higher level of NO formation would affect NR activity after long-term hypoxia and anoxia, thus, again, affecting plants’ survival. Moreover, a higher concentration of NO3− is reported to affect plant growth through the increased production of NO, thus increasing lipid peroxidation and the H2O2 level [80].
The role of NO in plant physiology has been described by numerous researchers. The reductive pathway of NO formation in plants is reported to be beneficial in plants as it promotes seed germination, increases biomass and root formation, increases energy status during O2 limitation, promotes tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, and promotes the induction of different defense-related genes, and many others.
It is clear that NO, as the end product of the NO3-NO2-NO pathway, plays numerous beneficial roles during hypoxia and anoxia tolerance in plants. However, to be beneficial, the concentration of NO plays a critical role, while hypoxia and anoxia trigger NO production, which can be lethal to cells [78]. Some of the adverse effects of NO are summarized in Table 1. Moreover, oxidative stress caused by O2 limitation and the overproduction of NO during various stresses could damage major components of mitochondria [86][116] and inhibit antioxidants systems, thus accumulating ROS and RNS. RNS, if accumulated more, could exacerbate more damage than ROS by triggering free radical peroxidation [117]. Increased RNS and ROS production could lead to retrograde signaling to the nucleus to regulate gene expressions [118]. Nitric oxide, through the formation of RNS, could lead to mutation, DNA damage, and cell death [116][119]. So, for the longer survival of a cell during hypoxia and anoxia, the NO produced RNS should be scavenged efficiently.
Effects of Higher Level of NO | References |
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Decreases the root growth through DNA damage, induces cell cycle arrest and inhibits primary root growth by affecting root apical meristem activity and cell elongation. | [120][121] |
Delayed flowering, retarded root development, and reduced starch granule formation through S-nitrosylation modification. | [122] |
Cell death through increased electrolyte leakage, cell wall degradation, cytoplasmic streaming, and DNA fragmentation. | [21] |
Decreases the expression of cyclins (CYC) and Cyclin-Dependent Kinases (CDKs), resulting in the downregulation of cell cycle progression. | [123] |
NO can generate peroxynitrite, which is a mediator of cytochrome c loss, protein oxidation and nitration, lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial dysfunction, damage DNA, and cell death. | [20][124] |
NO can inhibit antioxidants such as catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and ascorbate peroxidase in a reversible way and peroxynitrite in an irreversible way. | [96][125] |
NO can change the redox state and promote cell death. | [26] |
Inhibits lateral and primary root growth through reduced cell division and the expression of the auxin reporter markers DR5pro:GUS/GFP. | [121][126] |
Inhibits growth of tobacco plants through peroxynitrite formation and tyrosine nitration. | [127] |
Inhibits seed germination, while the scavenging of NO alleviates the effect. | [91] |
Inhibits the shoot growth and decreases the chlorophyll contents of the plants. | [128][129] |
It is clear that NO scavengers work differently in plants. For example, the use of NO scavengers during low NO production have negative effects on plant growth [130], while during high NO production, the same NO scavengers have positive effects [121]. A similar role of NO has been reported in mammals [131]. Therefore, the optimum level of NO could be different during normal and stress conditions. As a higher amount of NO is formed through the reductive pathways during the O2 limitation condition, it would be beneficial that some amount of NO is scavenged from cells. For example, the scavenging of NO using NO scavengers during hypoxia preserves the function of mammals’ mitochondria [132]. There may be several pathways of NO scavenging mechanisms during O2-limited conditions, such as NO reduction to N2O [18][133] and the phytoglobin-NO cycle in plants [134].
NO formation in plants is always suspected to be underestimated [15], which could be due to that fact that NO is not simultaneously measured with N2O. The use of tungsten as an NR inhibitor was reported to inhibit N2O formation in plants [135], while NR inhibition challenged the plants’ survival, as described in the above section, which further supports the concept that N2O formation also could play a role in plants’ survival strategies. Both NO [136] and N2O [137] can increase the activities of phenylalanine ammonialyase, cinnamate-4-hydroxylase, and 4-coumaroyl-CoA ligase during pathogen attack in plants while increasing total phenolic, flavonoid, and lignin content. Similarly, both NO and N2O are reported to slow down fruit ripening by lowering ethylene synthesis during post-harvest storage [138][139]. Therefore, the similar roles of both NO and N2O observed in plants could be due to NO reduction to N2O, which need further research as, to date, there is no research measuring both NO and N2O simultaneously. This NO reduction could take place in mitochondria and chloroplast of plants cell [18][140][141]. Thus, reducing the toxicity of NO in plants and protecting the components of mitochondria and chloroplast.
As stated in the above sections, the expression of Pgbs is beneficial for plants during O2-limited conditions, which is due to the NO scavenging mechanism. For example, during the germination of barley seeds, the scavenging of NO through the overexpression of Pgbs resulted in a higher germination rate, protein content, and ATP/ADP ratios and a lower rate of fermentation, the S-nitrosylation of proteins and S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) [134][142].
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/ijms231911522