Rice embryos can express heat-shock genes under anoxia.

Heat-shock proteins (hsps) are induced by a number of oxidative stresses. The proposal that the reduction products of oxygen initiate hsp induction was tested in rice embryos, capable of coleoptile growth under oxygen-free conditions. In such embryos, hsps could be detected by both in vivo labeling and in vitro translation of RNA using the reticulocyte lysate system. It is therefore improbable that the mechanism for hsp induction involves oxygen.