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Oxidation of Proline by Mitochondria Isolated from Water-Stressed Maize Shoots ¹

Department of Agronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Proline oxidation and coupled phosphorylation were measured in mitochondria after isolation from shoots of water-stressed, etiolated maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings. Both state III and state IV rates of proline oxidation decreased as a logarithmic function of increased seedling water stress between –5 and –10 bars. Proline oxidation rates decreased 62% (state III) and 58% (state IV) as seedling water potentials were decreased from –5 to –10 bars. By comparison, oxidation of succinate, exogenous NADH, or malate + pyruvate decreased only 10 to 15% in this stress range. These decreases were a linear function of increased stress and were comparable to oxidation rates of mitochondria subjected to varying in vitro osmotic potentials. Osmotically induced in vitro stress reduced proline oxidation rates linearly with more negative osmotic potentials, a decrease that was similar to the responses of the other substrates to more negative osmotic potentials. Some decrease in coupling, with all substrates as determined by ADP/O ratios, was observed under osmotic stress. Mitochondria were also isolated from shoot tissue that had been stressed and then rewatered. On a percentage basis, the recovery of proline oxidation was greater than that of the other substrates.

The decreases in the proline oxidase activity of mitochondria after only slight stress indicate a mitochondrial sensitivity to water stress at significantly less negative water potentials than previously reported for measurements of maize membrane permeability and respiratory activity.

³ To whom reprint requests should be sent.

¹ Research supported in part by Hatch funds from the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana, IL 61801.

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