A team led by Professor Chu Chengcai of the State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), recently revealed the molecular mechanism of delaying leaf senescence mediated by melatonin in rice. The work was recently released in J Pineal Res. (DOI:10.1111/jpi.12243) 

Chu and his colleagues demonstrated that melatonin acts as a potent agent to delay leaf senescence in rice. Treatments with melatonin significantly reduced chlorophyll degradation, suppressed the transcripts of senescence-associated genes, delayed the leaf senescence, and also enhanced salt stress tolerance. Further analysis revealed that melatonin is a potent free radical scavenger, and exogenous application could result in enhanced antioxidant protection. 

Their results demonstrated that melatonin delays the leaf senescence and cell death, and also enhances abiotic stress tolerance via directly or indirectly counteracting the cellular accumulation of H2O2. 

"The elucidating of the molecular mechanisms mediated by melatonin in plants will deepen our understanding to the regulation network underlying leaf senescence,” said Dr. Liang Chengzhen, the first author of the paper. “The delayed senescence of melatonin could have potential application in economically important crops, vegetables and flowers”. 

This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China. 

References 

Liang C, Zheng G, Li W, Wang Y, Hu B, Wang H, Qian Y, Zhu XG, Tan DX, Chen SY, Chu C (2015) Melatonin Delays Leaf Senescence and Enhances Salt Stress Tolerance in Rice. J Pineal Res. DOI:10.1111/jpi.12243. 

Contact: 

Dr. Chu Chengcai 

Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,  

Address: No. 1 West Beichen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China 

E-mail: ccchu@genetics.ac.cn