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vol. 7, nr. 1 (2006)
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Presence of aquaporins in desiccation process in pea seeds
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Grażyna Plenzler
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Department of Physics, Agricultural University, ul. Wojska Polskiego 38/42, 60-637 Poznań |
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vol. 7 (2006), nr. 1,
pp. 171-178
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abstract:
Desiccation of pea seeds has been re-examined by the gravimetric and spectroscopic methods in order to throw more light on the role of aquaporins in this process. Aquaporins are passive and remarkably efficient membrane channels that facilitate permeation of water in the plasma membrane in both plant and animal cells. There have been several attempts to characterise the role of aquaporins at the whole-plant level. In this paper the desiccation of pea seeds, preliminary imbibed at different time intervals and various conditions, was observed. Substantial differences were found in the short-time component of the two-exponential decay of water loss in pea seeds, which was been attributed to apoplastic water transport. No significant differences in desiccation kinetics were found in the long-time component. The effect of HgCl2, which is recognised as non-specific water channel inhibitor, was checked. It was observed that the water uptake decreased in the presence of HgCl2 in the imbibition medium and the presence of HgCl2 did not influence the kinetics of desiccation significantly. This observation was interpreted in terms of the osmoregulation model of water transport by aquaporins.
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keywords:
aquaporins (water channels), pea seeds, desiccation, osmoregulation
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original in:
Polish
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