Glutathione in Plant Growth, Development, and Stress Tolerance

Glutathione (γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine) is a ubiquitously distributed sulfurcontaining antioxidant molecule that plays key roles in the regulation of plant growth, development, and abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. It is one of the most powerful low-molecular-weight thiols, which rapidly accumulates in plant cells under stress. Recent in-depth studies on glutathione homeostasis (biosynthesis, degradation, compartmentalization, transport, and redox turnover) and the roles of glutathione in cell proliferation and environmental stress tolerance have provided new insights for plant biologists to conduct research aimed at deciphering the mechanisms associated with glutathione-mediated plant growth and stress responses, as well as to develop stress-tolerant crop plants. Glutathione has also been suggested to be a potential regulator of epigenetic modifications, playing important roles in the regulation of genes involved in the responses of plants to changing environments. The dynamic relationship between reduced glutathione (GSH) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been well documented, and glutathione has been shown to participate in several cell signaling and metabolic processes, involving the synthesis of protein, the transport of amino acids, DNA repair, the control of cell division, and programmed cell death. Two genes, gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GSH1) and glutathione synthetase (GSH2), are involved in GSH synthesis, and genetic manipulation of these genes can modulate cellular glutathione levels. Any fluctuations in cellular GSH and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) levels have profound effects on plant growth and development, as glutathione is associated with the regulation of the cell cycle, redox signaling, enzymatic activities, defense gene expression, systemic acquired resistance, xenobiotic detoxification, and biological nitrogen fixation. Being a major constituent of the glyoxalase system and ascorbate-glutathione cycle, GSH helps to control multiple abiotic and biotic stress signaling pathways through the regulation of ROS and methylglyoxal (MG) levels. In addition, glutathione metabolism has the potential to be genetically or biochemically manipulated to develop stress-tolerant and nutritionally improved crop plants. Although significant progress has been made in investigating the multiple roles of glutathione in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, many aspects of glutathione-mediated stress responses require additional research.

The main objective of this volume is to explore the diverse roles of glutathione in plants by providing basic, comprehensive, and in-depth molecular information for advanced students, scholars, teachers, and scientists interested in or already engaged in research that involves glutathione. Finally, this book will be a valuable resource for future glutathione-related research and can be considered as a textbook for graduate students and as a reference book for frontline researchers working on glutathione metabolism in relation to plant growth, development, stress responses, and stress tolerance.

Mohammad  Anwar  Hossain is a professor in the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh. He received his B.Sc. in agriculture and M.S. in genetics and plant breeding from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh. He also received an M.S. in agriculture from Kagawa University, Japan, in 2008 and a Ph.D. in abiotic stress physiology and molecular biology from Ehime University, Japan, in 2011 through a Monbukagakusho scholarship. In November 2015, he moved to Tokyo University, Japan, as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher to work on isolating low-phosphorus stress-tolerant genes/QTLs from rice. He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications on important aspects of plant physiology and breeding, plant nutrition, plant stress responses and tolerance mechanisms, and exogenous chemical priming-induced abiotic oxidative stress tolerance. He has edited five book volumes, including this one, published by CRC Press, Springer,and Elsevier. He is a professional member of the International Metabolomics Society, Bangladesh Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangladesh Association for Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology, and Seed Science Society of Bangladesh.

Mohammad Golam Mostofa is an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Bangladesh. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also obtained his M.S. in agriculture from Kagawa University, Japan, in 2012 and Ph.D. in plant and environmental sciences from Ehime University, Japan, in 2015 under a Monbukagakusho scholarship. His research focuses on plant physiology and biochemistry, abiotic stress tolerance in plants, oxidative stress responses, and crosstalk between phytohormones and signaling molecules under environmental stresses. His published works deal with the roles of signaling molecules in mitigating abiotic stresses in plants. He has authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles published in international journals. In September 2016, he joined the Signaling Pathway Research Unit at RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Japan, as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher to work on the roles of the strigolactone phytohormone and its interactions with other signaling molecules under abiotic stresses in plants.

Pedro Diaz-Vivancos is an associate researcher in the Plant Breeding Department at CEBAS-CSIC (Murcia, Spain). He received his B.Sc. in biological sciences from the University of Murcia and his Ph.D. in 2007 in agricultural and food technology from the University of Cartagena (Spain). He has worked in 2008 and 2009 at Newcastle and Leeds Universities (UK) as a postdoctoral scientist on the role of glutathione in the regulation of cell proliferation and plant development. His main research interests are the study of the role of antioxidative metabolism in plant development and in plant stress responses, including the induction of tolerance against environmental stresses in plum plants by increasing their antioxidant capacity by genetic engineering. He has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and 2 book chapters.

David  J.  Burritt is an associate professor in the Department of Botany, the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Hons) in botany and his Ph.D. in plant biotechnology from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. His research interests include oxidative stress and redox biology, plant-based foods and bioactive molecules, plant breeding and biotechnology, the cryopreservation of germplasm, and the stress biology of plants, animals, and algae. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has edited 2 books for Springer and 1 for Elsevier.

Masayuki Fujita is a professor in the Department of Plant Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry from Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, and his M.Agr. and Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan. His research interests include physiological, biochemical, and molecular biological responses based on secondary metabolism in plants under biotic (pathogenic fungal infection) and abiotic (salinity, drought, extreme temperatures, and heavy metals) stresses; phytoalexin, cytochrome P450, glutathione S-transferase, and phytochelatin; and redox reaction and antioxidants. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has edited 2 books.

Lam-Son  Phan  Tran is head of the Signaling Pathway Research Unit at RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Japan. He obtained his M.Sc. in biotechnology in 1994 and Ph.D. in biological sciences in 1997 from Szent Istvan University, Hungary. After doing his postdoctoral research at the National Food Research Institute (1999–2000) and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology of Japan (2001), in October 2001, he joined the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences to work on the functional analyses of transcription factors and osmosensors in Arabidopsis plants under environmental stresses. In August 2007, he moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, as a senior research scientist to coordinate a research team working to discover soybean genes to be used for genetic engineering of drought-tolerant soybean plants. His current research interests are the elucidation of the roles of phytohormones and their interactions in abiotic stress responses, as well as translational genomics of legume crops with the aim to enhance crop productivity under adverse environmental conditions. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers with more than 80 research and 30 review articles and contributed 8 book chapters to various book editions published by Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, and the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. He has also edited nine book volumes, including this one, for Springer and Elsevier.