ABSTRACT
The changes of antioxidant enzyme activities and related genes expression of tomato seedlings were evaluated under hypoxia stress with different levels of Mn2+. Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxide (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), catalase (CAT), the contents of H2O2, ascorbic (AsA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were studied to investigate how active oxygen damaged the membrane lipid under hypoxia stress. With 10-200 μmol?L-1 Mn2+, the activities of SOD, POD, APX, GR and the contents of H2O2, AsA, MDA of leaves and roots increased significantly, which indicated that low Mn2+ could eliminate the active oxygen and protect the membrane lipid from hurt. But the activities of catalase (CAT) decreased evidently in the root. When the concentration of Mn2+ reached 400-600 μmol?L-1 under hypoxia stress, the activities of SOD, POD, APX, GR and ASA content decreased remarkably. However, the contents of H2O2 and MDA increased contrarily. A series of resistance genes level achieved peak value with 10 µmol?L-1 Mn2+. The expression level of SOD, CAT, APX, POD, GR were 6.28, 2.19, 5.66, 5.21 and 6.79 times compared to control respectively. These results illustrated appropriate amount of Mn2+ could reduce the damage of active oxygen under hypoxia stress, but reversely, high level of Mn2+ just aggravated the already serious damage to the tomato seedlings.