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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 47, No. 305, pp. 1897-1904, December 1996 Journal of Experimental Botany Activation of cell wall-associated peroxidase isoenzymes in pea epicotyls by a xyloglucan-derived nonasaccharide Hildegard Maria Warneck, Thomas Haug and Harms Ulrich Seitz1 Botanisches Institut, University of TObingen, Auf der Morgensteiie 1, 72076 TObingen, Germany Received 14 March 1996; Accepted 12 July 1996 Abstract The cell wall-derived xyloglucan nonasaccharide XXFG was found to increase the extractable activity of distinct cationic cell wall-associated peroxidase isozyme groups isolated from etiolated pea epicotyls. Peroxidase activation occurred in the first 10 h of incubation with the nonasaccharide in the pea epicotyl bioassay. At the same time varying concentrations of XXFG caused growth inhibition up to 35%. Neither the increase of peroxidase activity nor the growth inhibition was restricted to a certain XXFG concentration. The increase in peroxidase activity was not just an oligosaccharide effect in general. The corresponding heptasaccharide XXXG neither inhibited growth nor increased peroxidase activity. The isozymes extracted from pea epicotyls were additionally separated by cation-exchange chromatography and submitted to isoelectric focusing. With one exception, all of the ionically-bound, cell wall-associated peroxidases present in pea epicotyls were cationic or slightly anionic. It is proposed that the growth inhibition caused by XXFG is at least in part the result of peroxidasecatalysed cell wall tightening induced by the nonasaccharide. Key words: XXFG, growth inhibition, cell wall-associated peroxidases, cell wall tightening, pea epicotyls. Introduction Xyloglucan oligosaccharides play an important role in plant growth and development. The xyloglucan nonasaccharide XXFG (nomenclature—Fry et al., 1993) has been found to influence several processes in plant growth. Nanomolar concentrations inhibited 2,4-D-induced 1 (York et al., 1984; McDougall and Fry, 1988; Emmerling and Seitz, 1990), NAA-induced (Warneck, 1994), protoninduced (Lorences et al., 1990), and gibberellic acidinduced elongation growth as well as endogenous growth (Warneck and Seitz, 1993). The growth-inhibiting effects were dependent on the fucosyl-galactosyl side-chain. The corresponding heptasaccharide XXXG lacking this sidechain caused no growth inhibition. To date there is no information on the mechanism after XXFG-application leading to growth inhibition. Since the inhibitory effect of XXFG is independent of the phytohormone applied to the system, the nonasaccharide seems to influence those processes which lead to elongation-growth in general. Due to the low XGO concentrations being most effective a direct interaction with the wall components seems to be unlikely. The specific structural requirements for the growth-inhibiting activity of XXFG suggest a specific receptor for XXFG and related fucose-containing XGOs (McDougall and Fry, 1988). The involvement of peroxidases in growth processes was suggested (Gaspar et al., 1982; Penel et al., 1992) several years ago and various attempts have been made to explain their participation in a pathway of reactions controlling cell wall rigidification (Srivastava and van Huystee, 1973; Ricard and Job, 1974; Gaspar et al., 1985). The role of peroxidases in plant growth was shown indirectly by the development of the enzyme along the growth gradient of mung bean hypocotyls being correlated with a loss in plasticity (Goldberg et al., 1986a, b, 1987). Zheng and van Huystee (1992) demonstrated a direct link between growth inhibition and peroxidase activities in peanut hypocotyls by the addition of either antibodies of individual peroxidases or purified isoenzymes to the culture medium. Furthermore, peroxidases are thought to regulate growth by catalysing oxidative To whom the correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +49 7071 293387. Abbreviations: PRX, peroxidases; XGOs, xyloglucan oligosaccharides; XXFG, xyloglucan nonasaccharide; XXXG, xyloglucan heptasaccharide. © Oxford University Press 1996 1898 Warneck et al. Peroxidase extraction coupling of phenols, for example, the formation of Peroxidase extraction was modified from the methods of diphenyl bridges (Fry, 1983, 1984; Cooper and Varner, Masuda et al. (1983) and Sato et al. (1993). After determination 1984; Epstein and Lamport, 1984), which leads to a crossof fresh weight, 20 pea epicotyl segments of each treatment in linking of polysaccharides and glycoproteins in the cell the bioassay were homogenized in liquid nitrogen with mortar wall (Fry, 1986; Zheng and van Huystee, 1991a; Hartley and pestle, suspended in 5 ml TRIS/HC1 buffer (0.1 M, pH 7.0) and Jones, 1975). This process is proposed to lead to cell and homogenized again by ultrasonication (3 x 30 s, 70 W). In order to isolate the cell wall fraction together with the ionicallywall tightening and thus to a loss of plasticity of the wall. bound peroxidases, the suspension was centrifuged at 1000 g Valero et al. (1991) showed that the activity of cell wallfor 10 min. The supernatant contained the intracellular associated peroxidases in epicotyls of Cicer arietinum was peroxidase fraction. The pellet was resuspended in 5 ml 0.1 M related to cell wall tightening. TRIS/HC1 (pH 7.0) and centrifuged again at 6000 g for 10 min. The supernatant was discarded and the pellet washed Since the presence of certain peroxidases, very often twice in 0.1 M TR1S/HC1 (pH 7.0). Cell walls were resuspended cationic isozymes, has been positively correlated with a in 2 ml 0.1 M TRIS/HC1 (pH 7.0) containing 0.2 M CaCI2 and number of physiological processes such as cessation of stirred for 2 h at 4°C to extract ionically-bound, cell wallgrowth, it was hypothesized that growth inhibition caused associated peroxidases. The extraction was terminated by centrifugation (18000 g, 20 min). The pellet was resuspended by the nonasaccharide XXFG was possibly the result of and centrifuged again. The resulting supernatants were comperoxidase-catalysed processes in the cell wall. During bined and contained the cell wall-associated peroxidases isolated auxin-stimulated elongation growth a variety of xyloat pH 7.0. In some experiments peroxidases were isolated by glucan fragments are released by cellulase-catalysed incubation with 0.1 M acetate (pH 4.5) containing 0.2 M CaCl 2 . degradation of wall xyloglucans. The resulting biologicThese fractions contained the cell wall-associated peroxidases isolated at pH 4.5. ally active fragments are likely to act in the apoplast or at the plasma membrane. Interest was, therefore, focused All enzyme extracts were concentrated by ultrafiltration (Centricon-10, Amicon, Inc., Beverly, MA, USA). on ionically-bound, cell wall-associated peroxidases. The The protein concentration was determined according to influence of the cell wall-derived xyloglucan oligosaccharBradford (1976). ides XXFG and XXXG on cell wall-associated peroxidase isozymes was investigated in the pea epicotyl bioassay. Separation of isoenzymes by non-denaturing gel electrophoresis Growth inhibition was examined at the same time. The Peroxidase isoenzymes were separated by discontinuous polydata support the hypothesis that cell wall-associated acrylamide gel electrophoresis (separating gel 7.5%, pH 4.3; stacking gel 3.75%, pH 6.8) under non-denaturing conditions, peroxidase isozymes are activated by XXFG and might modified from the methods of Reisfeld et al. (1962) and Hames be involved in XXFG-induced growth inhibition. Materials and methods Cell cultures and preparation of xyloglucan-derived oligosaccharides Suspension-cultured carrot cells (Daucus carota L.) were maintained as previously described (Seitz et al., 1985). Xyloglucanderived oligosaccharides (XXXG and XXFG) were prepared from the hemicellulosic fraction of cell walls of suspensioncultured Daucus carota cells by the controlled action of cellulase in vitro. Purification and identification was carried out as previously described (Emmerling and Seitz, 1990; Warneck and Seitz, 1993). Pea epicotyl bioassay The pea epicotyl bioassay was carried out as previously described (Warneck and Seitz, 1993), but in a slightly modified version. These experiments were performed with 6-7-d-old etiolated pea epicotyls, varying in length from 3.5-6 cm, but possessing a partly developed second internode (up to 1.3 cm). After length determination the epicotyls were incubated between 1 h and 10 h with or without varying concentrations of the XGOs (final concentration 1 0 ~ n - 1 0 ~ 7 M ) in the absence of exogenously applied phytohormones. After incubation, the final length was determined again and a 1.5 cm long segment excised directly below the plumular hook for peroxidase extraction. The segments were frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at 18 °C. and Rickwood (1981). According to their affinity for ionexchange chromatography material, peroxidases are classified as anionic or cationic isozymes (Nessel and Mader, 1977). Anionic peroxidases are separated by using a basic pH-value of the separating gel; cationic isozymes are separated at an acidic pH. Cathodic separations were performed at pH 4.3 and led to a separation of cationic isoenzymes. Anodic separations were carried out at pH 8.8, leading to a separation of anionic isoenzymes. Samples for electrophoresis (22.5 fil) contained enzyme extracts (with equal amounts of protein, between 5 and 10 pg as indicated, in 0.1 M TRIS/HC1 buffer, containing 0.2 M CaCl 2 (pH 7.0) and 4-fold concentrated sample buffer (7.5 ^1) with 10% glycerol, 1-fold concentrated stacking buffer (375 mM HOAc, 60 mM K.OH, pH 4.3) and 0.002% phenosafranin as the tracking dye. A volume of 30 /J was applied to each slot. The gels were run in a water-cooled (4°C) 'Mighty Small' system (Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden) for 4 h at 9 raA per gel with HOAc-buffer (140mM, containing 342 mM 0-alanine) at pH4.5. Staining for peroxidases After gel electrophoresis peroxidase activity was detected by staining with o-dianisidine in the presence of H 2 O 2 (Stegemann el al., 1983). Peroxidases convert o-dianisidine into a waterinsoluble brown dye. The gels were equilibrated for 5 min in a solution containing 30 mg o-dianisidine dissolved in 18 ml methanol and 48 ml 0.25 M NaH 2 PO 4 (pH 5.8). The reaction was then initiated by the addition of 120 ^1 H 2 O 2 (245 /*M). Photographs were taken after 30 min. In some experiments, o-dianisidine was replaced by guaiacol, and the peroxidases were stained according to Siegel and Galston (1967). XXFG-induced activation of pea peroxidase SDS-PAGE SDS-was conducted according to Laemmli (1970) using a 5% stacking and a 10% separating gel. Proteins were silver stained according to Ansorge (1985). Preparation of crude extracts for ion-exchange chromotography Pea epicotyl segments (1.5 cm length) from 6-7-d-old etiolated pea seedlings with a partly developed second internode were excised directly below the plumular hook and homogenized as described above. Cell walls were also prepared as described above with the exception that the TRIS/HC1 buffer used throughout the extraction was replaced by Mcllvain buffer (10 mM citrate, 20 mM Na2HPO4, pH 5.8). Ionically-bound peroxidase isoenzymes were isolated by incubation with 3 M LiCl in Mcllvain buffer (pH 5.8) for 2 h at 4°C. The insoluble material was removed from the crude protein extract by centrifugation (18000 g, 10 min). The volume was reduced by ultrafiltration (model 52, Amicon, Witten, FRG; Diaflo PM10). Desalting and buffer exchange (20 mM Na-acetate, pH 5.0) was carried out by using PD-10 columns (Sephadex G 25 M, Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). Ion-exchange chromatography The crude protein fraction was applied to a cation-exchange CM-Sepharose 'Fast-Flow column' (2.6x16 cm) equilibrated with 20 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH 5.0), at a flow rate of 1.5 ml min"1 (Pharmacia Biotech with a GradiFrac system and HiLoad-pump P-50, Uppsala, Sweden). Bound proteins were eluted by applying a linear gradient from 20 to 600 mM Na-acetate buffer (pH 5.0). Fractions of 8 ml were collected and monitored at 280 nm (Monitor UV-1, Pharmacia Biotech, Uppsala, Sweden). The fractions were assayed for peroxidase activity with guaiacol and H2O2 according to Siegel and Galston (1967). Fractions corresponding to the major cationic peroxidases were pooled, concentrated by ultrafiltration (Centricon-10, Amicon, Beverly, MA, USA) and submitted to non-denaturing gel electrophoresis suitable for the separation of cationic peroxidases as well as to isoelectric focusing. inhibition by XXFG was observed (Warneck and Seitz, 1993). Since quantitative assays for peroxidases do not distinguish between individual isozymes, peroxidases were separated by non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. In these experiments there was a focus on cationic isozymes because anionic isozymes were not detectable even when separated under basic conditions. Using a gel system with an acidic pH-value it was possible to separate five different cationic isozyme groups named Cl to C5 (Fig. 1). This isozyme pattern was typical of cell wall-associated peroxidases and was independent of the pH-value (4.5 or 7.0) of the buffer used. Intracellular peroxidases showed a different pattern of isozymes compared to the cell wallassociated peroxidases, but lacked the C4 and C5 isozyme groups when separated at an acidic pH. The incubation with the nonasaccharide XXFG caused an increase in peroxidase activity of distinct isoenzyme groups between 1 h and 10 h. Samples extracted from pea epicotyls incubated with different concentrations of the nonasaccharide showed a clear increase of the isozyme groups C4 and C5, with either one or both of them being activated (Fig. 1). At the same time XXFG, inhibited endogenous growth up to 26% (Fig. 2). The increase in peroxidase activity as well as XXFG-induced growth inhibition was not restricted to a certain concentration but varied between the experiments. In some experiments all the XXFG concentrations caused a clear activation of distinct isoenzyme groups compared to the control independent of the incubation time (Fig. 3). In order to prove that the increase in enzyme activity of the isozyme groups C4 C.PRX Isoelectric focusing Ultrathin-layer isoelectric focusing was performed in 200 ^m polyacrylamide gels (pH gradient 2-11) according to Radola (1980) using a flat-bed apparatus (Pharmacia-LKB, Freiburg, FRG). Peroxidase activity was detected by staining with diaminobenzidine and benzidine according to Gebhardt el al. (1982). Commercially available horseradish peroxidase from Sigma (Deisenhofen, FRG) was used as a standard. C1 C2 C3 XXFG •vniit C4 MUttM Statistical significance Each experiment consisted of 18-20 epicotyls per oligosaccharide concentration and control. Each experiment was repeated at least three times on separate days. The elongation of the XXFG-treated epicotyls was significantly different from that of the control by Student's Mest. (a) />^0.001; (b) 0.001 <,P<,0.005; (c) 0.005^^^0.01; (d) 0.01 ^P^O.025; (e) 0.025 ^ P < 0.05; (f) P^O.OS; (a-e = significantly different; f= not significantly different). Results Peroxidases were extracted from a 1.5 cm long segment excised directly below the plumular hook. In this region maximum elongation growth as well as maximum growth 1899 C5 -3 _fc c 0 -3 -fc e 0 s r- ^ — r l l CD CD = o-> 11 CD 2: ON CD 5= ?^ I CD Fig. 1. Cathodic separation of ionically-bound, cell wall-associated cationic isoperoxidases under non-denaturing conditions. Before peroxidase-extraction pea epicotyls were treated with varying concentrations of XXFG ( 1 0 " " , 10"', 10" 7 M) for 7 h. The controls were incubated without XXFG. Peroxidases were isolated from the growth region of etiolated pea epicotyls. Each lane contains peroxidase-isozymes isolated from 20 epicotyls and was loaded with 8 fig protein. Peroxidase activity was visualized by staining with o-dianisidine in the presence of H 2 O 2 . 1900 Warneck et al. C.PRX 30 • C2 20 i C3 o en XXFG 1 111 I! !! C1 3? XXXG C4 10 g -5 _t CZ O 0.01 1.0 100 concentration of nonasaccharide [nM] Fig. 2. Inhibition of endogenous growth of etiolated pea epicotyls by XXFG. The data show the growth inhibition caused by the nonasaccharide in the same experiment as shown in Fig 1. Inhibition of growth by the nonasaccharide (%) is related to the control incubated in the absence of XXFG. Growth inhibition was calculated as previously described (Warneck and Seitz, 1993). Each value is the mean of 38—40 epicotyls; a-f indicate the significance of difference from the control. C.PRX x: r- 2: o 1 1 O O 2: ?f I O o c 0 21 1 0 0 2: 21 1 T 0 Fig. 4. Influence of the xyloglucan oligosacchandes XXXG and XXFG on the activity of lonically-bound, cell wall-associated peroxidases of etiolated pea epicotyls. Pea epicotyls were treated for 6 h with varying concentrations (10" u , 10"', 10"7 M) of the oligosacchandes in the pea epicotyl bioassay. The controls were incubated without XGOs. Each lane contains isoperoxidases isolated from 18-20 epicotyls and was loaded with 9.8 ^g protein. The cathodic separation was earned out under non-denaturing conditions. C4 30 XXFG XXXG a? 20 10 Fig. 3. Cathodic separation of ionically-bound, cell wall-associated cationic peroxidase isozymes isolated from the growth region of etiolated pea epicotyls. This figure shows only the C4 isozyme. Before peroxidase-extraction pea epicotyls were treated with varying concentrations (ltT 11 , 10"9, 10"7 M) of XXFG for 3, 5 and 7 h. Each lane contains peroxidase-isozymes extracted from 18-20 epicotyls and was loaded with 18 ^g protein. Peroxidase activity was visualized by staining with o-dianisidine in the presence of H2O2. and C5 was not just the result of an oligosaccharide effect in general, but a specific reaction to XXFG, the influence of the corresponding heptasaccharide XXXG with that of XXFG on peroxidase activity was compared. XXXG lacks the fucosyl-galactosyl side-chain which is responsible for the growth-inhibiting effect of the XGOs. Peroxidase activity was extracted after 6 h of incubation with varying concentrations of the oligosacchandes. All concentrations of XXXG tested (KT 11 , 10"9, 10"7 M) failed to cause any distinct increase of enzyme activity (Fig. 4) whereas 10~7 M and 10~9 M concentrations of XXFG clearly enhanced the activity of the isozyme group C5. C4 was activated by treatment with 10 ~7 M XXFG -10 I Y///S1 f f f 0.01 1.0 100 0.01 1.0 100 concentration of ollgosaccharlde [nM] Fig. 5. Influence of XXXG and XXFG on endogenous growth of etiolated pea epicotyls after 6h of incubation. The data show the influence of the XGOs on elongation growth in the same experiment as shown in Fig. 4. Inhibition of growth (%) is related to the control incubated in the absence of XGOs. Each value is the mean of 18-20 epicotyls; a-f indicate the significance of difference from the control. and slightly activated by 10" n M XXXG. At the same time the heptasaccharide showed no growth inhibition (Fig. 5). XXFG inhibited endogenous growth up to 30% at 10"11 M. XXFG-induced activation of pea peroxidase 1901 9 In the same experiment 10 M XXFG inhibited growth up to 20% after 9 h (data not shown). Peroxidase activity had already decreased by that time. Epicotyls treated with 10"" M XXFG still showed growth inhibition of 34% while peroxidase activity stayed at the level of the controls. From these experiments it is concluded that the activation of certain peroxidase isozymes takes place some time before growth inhibition occurrs and slowly decreases afterwards. This would imply that 10" n M XXFG had caused an activation of the isozyme groups C4 and C5 earlier and that the activity had already decreased after 6 h resulting in a clear growth inhibition. In some experiments a slight activation of the C4 or C5 isozyme group was observed in one of the controls or even XXXG-treated samples. Interestingly, elongation growth of these samples was also reduced compared with parallel samples treated identically. Since the endogenous concentration of XXFG in the epicotyls is unknown it could be supposed that the slight activation which sometimes occurrs in non-treated samples is due to the endogenous concentration of XXFG in the epicotyls. The endogenous XXFG concentration might also be the reason for variations in the most effective concentration of XXFG as well as variations in the percentage of growth inhibition caused by the nonasaccharide throughout the experiments. When peroxidases of XXFG-treated samples were separated by SDS-PAGE, no additional protein bands compared to the controls appeared (data not shown), even though XXFG had caused a clear activation of the C4 and C5 isozyme groups when separated by non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. In order to characterize the XXFG-activated isozymes in more detail, the crude extract of cell wall-associated peroxidases extracted with high salt concentrations, e.g. LiCl (3 M), was separated by cation-exchange chromatography equilibrated with 20 mM Na-acetate and bound proteins eluted with a linear Na-acetate gradient. Five peaks of activity were obtained by assaying for peroxidase activity using guaiacol as a substrate (Fig. 6). The elution profile was similar to the one Valero et al. (1991) obtained from cell wall-associated peroxidases of Cicer arietinum epicotyls. In the experiments, the amount of two fractions designated as Px-1 and Px-2 was correlated with the age of the epicotyls. Px-2 showed an inverse relationship to their growth capacity. The shoulder of Px-1 eluted at the same concentration as peak 3 containing the isozyme groups C4 and C5 that were increased by XXFG-treatment. The fractions under the peaks were pooled, concentrated and submitted to non-denaturing gel electrophoresis under acidic conditions. The isozyme group C4 which was activated by XXFG eluted in peak 3, with a slight contamination in peak 4 (Fig. 7). The isozyme group C5 was also present in peak 3, but the activity in this preparation was too low to be visible in Fig. 7. The five 80 fractions Fig. 6. Elution profile of CM-sepharose ion-exchange chromatography of the lomcally-bound cell wall proteins from 6-d-old etiolated pea epicotyls. Proteins were eluted by a linear gradient from 20 to 600 mM Na-acetate buffer (pH 5.0). Proteins were monitored at 280 nm (O). Peroxidase activity was measured with guaiacol as the substrate (A). C.PRX C1 C2 C3 crude 1 2 extract 4 5 wmm 1* Ik i II U C5 3 i Fig. 7. Cathodic separation under non-denaturing conditions of the five peroxidase activity peaks obtained by ion-exchange chromatography (Fig. 6). Lane 1: crude extract before chromatography; lane 2: aliquot of peak 1; lane 3: aliquot of peak 2; lane 4: aliquot of peak 3; lane 5: aliquot of peak 4; lane 6: aliquot of peak 5. In lanes 1-6 the peroxidase activity loaded was between 1.5 and 2.0 A A min"1 in 50 ^1 using guaiacol as a substrate. peaks were additionally separated by isoelectric focusing. All the five peaks obtained by cation-exchange chromatography contained mainly cationic isozymes (Fig. 8) with a pi between 9.5 and 7.0, which confirmed the results of the non-denaturing gels as well as a group of slightly anionic isozymes with a pi between 7.0 and 6.0. The crude extract contained a slight amount of one strongly anionic isoenzyme with a pi of 3.0, which was lost by cation-exchange chromatography. The pis of the isozymes in peaks 1 and 2 were all located between pH 8.0 and 8.7. The pis of the isozymes in peak 3 were located at pH 9.5, 8.5, 8.0, and between pH 8.0 and 6.5. The pis of the isozymes in peak 4 were located around pH 9.0, 1902 Warneck et al. X X 1 2 3 4 at anode cathode Fig. 8. Ultrathin-layer isoelectnc focusing (pH 2-11). Lanes 1-5 were loaded with an aliquot of the peaks containing peroxidase activity after ion-exchange chromatography (Fig. 6). Lanes 1-6 were loaded with peroxidase activity between 1.5 and 2.0 AA min"1 in 50 jA using guaiacol as the substrate. 1' peak 1; 2- peak 2; 3: peak 3; 4: peak 4; 5: peak 5; 6: crude extract before ion-exchange chromatography; 7: commercial horseradish peroxidase. pH 8.0 and between pH 7.0 and 6.0. The isozymes in peak 5 were located between pH 6.5 and 5.5 showing a slightly anionic character. From the IEF data it was not possible to asign each isozyme to one of the five isozyme groups obtained on the non-denaturing gels. The data imply that each isozyme group consists of several different peroxidase-isozymes. Discussion The xyloglucan-derived nonasaccharide XXFG inhibits elongation growth in general (Warneck and Seitz, 1993) independent of the phytohormone applied to the system. The role of peroxidases in the control of plant growth includes the regulation of the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) levels through oxidative catabolism as well as their participation in the loss of plasticity of the cell walls through the phenolic cross-linking of cell wall polymers (Biggs and Fry, 1987) such as via isodityrosine or diferulate. The cross-linking of wall polymers results in an irreversible tightening which leads to resistance against turgordriven expansion. Since peroxidases are very often induced during plant pathogen interactions (Gaspar et al., 1982; Flott et al., 1989) it should be mentioned that the biologically active XXFG does not show any elicitor activity (Warneck, 1994). It has been shown that varying concentrations of XXFG increased the extractable activity of distinct peroxidase isozymes in the first 10 h of incubation. At the same time growth was significantly inhibited. In some experiments the increase in peroxidase activity was independent of the nonasaccharide concentration applied and the incubation time. Variations in the most effective concentrations of the nonasaccharide are probably due to the short incubation times and the unknown concentrations of endogenous XXFG in each epicotyl. Normally, growth inhibition in the pea epicotyl bioassay is assayed after 24 h of incubation (Warneck and Seitz, 1993). Shorter incubation times lead to greater variations in the growth rate which normally disappear within 24 h. The reason for carrying out these short incubation times was that XXFG-induced growth inhibition was already achieved after 3-5 h. In these experiments peroxidase activity had increased by this time. Similar observations were made in suspension cultures of carrot (Warneck, 1994). Incubation of carrot cells with nanomolar concentrations of XXFG caused an increase in activity of certain cell wall-associated peroxidase isozyme groups up to 10 h. Unfortunately, elongation growth and its inhibition cannot readily be measured in these cell cultures. The postulated involvement of peroxidase-catalysed tightening in XXFG-induced growth inhibition implicates an activation of peroxidases being correlated with the early appearance of growth inhibition. The role of peroxidases in growth has been shown directly (Zheng and van Huystee, 1992) or indirectly (Goldberg et al, 1986a, b, 1987) by the development of the enzyme activity along the growth gradient of hypocotyls. Valero et al. (1991) examined changes in the occurrence of cell wall-associated peroxidases in epicotyls of Cicer arietinum. The activity of two isolated fractions designated as Px-1 and Px-2 was correlated with the age of the epicotyls. The activity of Px-1 decreased when the epicotyl age advanced showing a slightly increasing shoulder. Peroxidase activity of Px-1 was clearly increased at pH-values lower than 5.0. The elution profile was similar to the one obtained from pea epicotyls. The shoulder of Px-1 eluted at the same concentration as peak 3 containing the isozyme groups C4 and C5 that were activated by XXFG. Further characterization of these isozymes concerning the pH-optimum would be of great interest. The higher activity of the fraction Px-1 at low pH-values might thus be due to processes initiating the end of elongation growth. It is suggested that different isozymes might control successive steps in the process of cell wall tightening. All the ionically-bound, cell wall-associated peroxidases isolated from pea epicotyls belonged to the group of cationic or slightly anionic isozymes as proved by nondenaturing gel electrophoresis and IEF. Only one strongly anionic isozyme with a pi of 3.0 was present in the cell wall of pea. In peanut cationic peroxidase is the predomin- XXFG-induced activation of pea peroxidase ant isozyme in the cell wall (Zheng and van Huystee, 1991a, b) or the medium (Hu et al., 1989), although anionic isozymes were described (van Huystee, 1990; Zheng and van Huystee, 1991a). The cationic peroxidase isolated from the medium of cell cultures of peanut had a high homology with ionically and covalently-bound cell wall peroxidase (Zheng and van Huystee, 19916). Both cationic and anionic ionically-bound isozymes were found in the cell walls of lupin (Ferrer et al., 1992; Ros Barcelo et al., 1987, 1988) and of mung bean (Goldberg et al., 1986a, b, 1987). Siegel and Galston (1967) examined the patterns of isoperoxidases in different organs of tall and dwarf pea cultivars. Interestingly, the pattern for cationic peroxidases in shoots was similar to the one in our system. They found anionic isozymes in extracts of shoots, but they were not classified as cell wall-located enzymes. Many attempts have been made to define clear functions for anionic or cationic peroxidase isozymes (Gaspar et al., 1985). Cationic isozymes were found to be more effective in IAA-oxidation (van den Berg et al., 1983) which leads to a clear alteration in the concentration of IAA and the phytohormone level in general (Trewavas, 1991). Anionic isozymes have been suggested to be involved in crosslinking of cell wall polymers and in the lignification process (Gaspar et al., 1985) although cationic peroxidases have been described in this process as well (Zheng and van Huystee, 1991a; van Huystee and Zheng, 1993). In peanut, both the cationic and the anionic isozymes were able to oxidize tyrosine (Zheng and van Huystee, 1991a), but with different pH-optima, although the cationic isozyme is the major peroxidase in the cell wall of peanut (Hu et al., 1989). Additionally in experiments on the oxidation of ferulic acid, antibodies against the cationic isozyme were more inhibitory (van Huystee and Zheng, 1993). In summary this work supports the hypothesis that peroxidase-catalysed processes in the cell wall are involved in XXFG-induced growth inhibition. It is further hypothesized that the activity of XXFG-activated isozymes interferes with cell elongation and growth processes. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the European Communities' Biotechnology Programme as part of the Project of Technological Priority, 1993-1996. We wish to thank Professor SC Fry for valuble discussion. We are grateful to Mrs I Freitag for performing the isoelectric focusing. We thank Professor Feucht and his coworkers for discussing the IEF data. References Ansorge W. 1985. Fast and sensitive detection of protein and DNA bands by treatment with potassium permanganate. Journal of Biochemical and Biophysical Methods 11,13-20. Biggs KJ, Fry SC. 1987. 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