Activity and isoforms of peroxidases, lignin and anatomy, during adventitious rooting in cuttings of Ebenus cretica L.

Adventitious rooting of Ebenus cretica cuttings was studied in order to examine a) the rooting ability of different genotypes in relation to electrophoretic patterns of peroxidases. b) the activity and electrophoretic patterns of soluble and wall ionically bound peroxidases, the lignin content and anatomical changes in the control and IBA treated cuttings of <rooting> and <non-rooting> genotypes in the course of adventitious root formation. In addition, a fraction of soluble cationic peroxidases was separated by gel filtration chromatography from the total soluble peroxidases of a <rooting> genotype. No rooting occurred in cuttings without IBA-treatment. In both genotypes, electrophoretic patterns of soluble anionic peroxidases revealed two common peroxidase isoforms, while a fast-migrating anionic peroxidase isoform (A3) appeared only in <rooting> genotypes. Both genotypes showed similar patterns of soluble, as well as wall ionically bound cationic peroxidase isoforms. The number of isoforms was unchanged during the rooting process (induction, initiation and expression phase) but an increase in peroxidase activity (initiation phase) followed by decrease has been found in IBA-treated cuttings. During initiation phase the lignin content was almost similar to that on day 0 in <rooting> genotype while it was reduced at by about 50% in <non-rooting> genotype at the respective time. Microscopic observations revealed anatomical differences between genotypes. According to this study, the <rooting> and <non-rooting> genotypes display differences in anatomy, lignin content, activity of soluble peroxidases and the electrophoretic patterns of soluble anionic peroxidase isoforms. The A3-anionic peroxidase isoform could be used as biochemical marker to distinguish <rooting> and <non-rooting> genotypes of E. cretica and seems to be correlated to lignin synthesis in rooting process.