Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports
5 years ago

Ameliorative effects of melatonin on dark-induced leaf senescence in gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis): leaf morphology, anatomy, physiology and transcriptome

Daqiu Zhao, Zhiyuan Li, Yanqing Wu, Jun Tao, Jiasong Meng, Rong Wang
Cut gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis) foliage is widely used as a vase material or flower bouquet indoors; however, insufficient indoor light accelerates its senescence, which shortens its viewing time. In this study, applying melatonin to delay gardenia leaf senescence when exposed to extremely low light condition (darkness), and the results showed that 1.0 mM was the effective concentration. At this concentration, chlorophyll contents and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, Fv/F0 and Y(II)) increased, while the carotenoid and flavonoid contents decreased. Meanwhile, stress physiological indices decreased in response to exogenous melatonin application, whereas an increase in glutamine synthetase activity, water and soluble protein contents was observed. Moreover, exogenous melatonin application also reduced leaf programmed cell death under darkness, increased the endogenous melatonin level, expression levels of tryptophan decarboxylase gene, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and the ascorbate–glutathione cycle, and maintained more intact anatomical structures. Furthermore, transcriptome sequencing revealed that various biological processes responded to exogenous melatonin application, including carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction and pigment biosynthesis. Consequently, dark-induced leaf senescence in gardenia was significantly delayed. These results provided a better understanding for improving the ornamental value of cut gardenia foliage using melatonin.

Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10799-9

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-10799-9

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.