Effect of heat stress during grain filling on phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activities of various green organs in winter wheat

Abstract

In two winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars differing in their response to high temperature, JD8 (tolerant) and J411 (sensitive) we studied the effect of heat stress on the activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPC) in green organs during grain-filling. There were significantly higher PEPC activities and lower RuBPC activities in each of the non-leaf organs (awn, glume, lemma, peduncle, and sheath) than in the flag leaf blade. Under heat stress for 12 d, the activity of RuBPC quickly declined and the activity of PEPC first increased and later declined in all organs, resulting in a great increase of the PEPC/RuBPC ratios in the organs, particularly in non-leaf organs which had a higher PEPC/RuBPC than the flag leaf blade in all times. The PEPC activity and PEPC/RuBPC ratio in every organ of JD8 were higher than those in the same organ of J411. Thus the differences in PEPC activities and PEPC/RuBPC may be associated with the differences in photosynthetic heat tolerance among the organs of the same plant or between the two cultivars.