ISSN 00124966, Doklady Biological Sciences, 2012, Vol. 447, pp. 357359. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2012.

Original Russian Text A.V. Chasov, R.P. Beckett, F.V. Minibayeva, 2012, published in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2012, Vol. 447, No. 2, pp. 235237.
357
Hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) are among the
most ancient terrestrial plants; they appeared about
450 million years ago and comprise only 200250 spe
cies [1]. Due to their cytological and morphological
similarity with both algae and higher plants, hornworts
become the focus of attention of molecular biologists
and geneticists [24]. Until recently, hornworts were
considered as one of the Bryopsida classes, however, at
present, they are regarded as a separate division in
plant taxonomy [4]. Phylogenetic and structural anal
yses suggest that, in evolutionary terms, hornworts are
sister to modern vascular plants and originated from a
common ancestor [3, 4]. Probably, Anthoceroto
phytalike plants were an intermediate in the transi
tion from organisms where the generation with a hap
loid gametophyte dominates in the plant life cycle to
organisms with a diploid sporophyte [3]. It is known
that hornworts are extremely droughttolerant and
have a phenomenal feature of remaining viable when
loosing 95% of water [5]. Despite the obvious impor
tance, the biochemical resistance mechanisms,
including the kinetic characteristics of redox reactions
in the cells of hornworts, have hardly been studied. In
stress, an increase in the level of reactive oxygen spe
cies (ROS) can occur in the cells of bryophytes, as well
as in most plants [6] and many redox enzymes and
lowmolecularweight antioxidants are involved in
their production and detoxification. In the cells of vas
cular plants, e.g., in wheat roots, apoplastic peroxi
dases with the capacities for both ROS production and
H
2
O
2
decomposition are among the key enzymes of
the redox metabolism during stress [7, 8]. Despite
intense study of the reaction chemistry and the evolu
tion of the structure of peroxidases [9], the possible
mechanisms and factors contributing to stimulating
the ROSproducing peroxidase activity remain unre
solved. A promising approach for solving this problem
is to study hitherto unknown peculiarities of function
ing of peroxidases of Anthocerotophyta, which are at a
lower evolutionary level compared to vascular plants.
Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to
analyze the kinetic characteristics of peroxidases in
Anthocerotophyta and to reveal the possible involve
ment of these enzymes in ROS production under stress
conditions.
To study the redox enzymes of Anthoceros natalen
sis Steph. collected from the Ferncliffe Nature
Reserve, Republic of South Africa, fractionation of
proteins of the cell wall was performed [10]. Rehydra
tion (1 h) after 50% dehydration was carried out in dis
tilled water [11]. The enzyme activity was estimated
spectrophotometrically in the homogenate or cell wall
fractions by the product formation or the substrate
consumption. odianisidine ( = 460 nm, =
30.0 mM
1
cm
1
), 3,4dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA,
= 475 nm, = 3.6 mM
1
cm
1
), ascorbic acid ( =
265 nm, = 8.24 mM
1
cm
1
), and H
2
O
2
( = 240 nm,
= 40 mM
1
cm
1
) were used as substrates.
It was shown that 50% dehydration of the thallus
during a day results in an increase in the activity of
intracellular peroxidase up to three times (Fig. 1).
During subsequent rehydration, the level of peroxi
dase activity did not change. It is of interest that the
peroxidase activity was also detected in the extracellu
lar solution in which rehydration was carried out.
Thus, Anthoceros peroxidase, as well as wheat peroxi
dase [7], is highly mobile and is activated under stress
impact. Previously, we demonstrated that a number of
lichens, mosses, and liverworts had a high redox activ
ity expressed, in particular, in the formation of oxygen
anion radicals ( ) [6]. The highest activity was
observed in one of the Anthocerotophyta species,
namely A. natalensis. This could be due to functioning
of the ROSproducing peroxidase.
O
2

Peroxidases of Anthoceros natalensis,

an Evolutionary Precursor of Vascular Plants
A. V. Chasov
a
, R. P. Beckett
b
, and F. V. Minibayeva
a
Presented by Academician I.A. Tarchevskii May 3, 2012
Received May 12, 2012
DOI: 10.1134/S0012496612060014
a
Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics,
Kazan Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Kazan, 420111 Russia
b
School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, Scottsville, 3209 Republic of South Africa
GENERAL
BIOLOGY
358
DOKLADY BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Vol. 447 2012
CHASOV et al.
In this study, we have shown that peroxidase has the
highest activity among the enzymes from the intracel
lular fraction of A. natalensis (Table 1). Kinetic analy
sis of the peroxidase activity in different fractions
showed that the intracellular peroxidases had the max
imum reaction rate (Table 2). Apoplastic peroxidases
were characterized by the highest affinity to the sub
strate (the lowest Michaelis constant) (Table 2). Thus, a
small amount of the substrate is sufficient to activate
peroxidases of the apoplast. This fact may be of
great importance for the induction of oxidative
burst at the cell surface in stress, the trigger of sig
naling cascades, and the subsequent development of
resistance of plants [12].
It is known that peroxidase has a NADH oxidase
function, with the radical form of NAD and H
2
O
2
being formed as a result of the interaction of this
enzyme with oxygen [13]. According to Chances
scheme, peroxidase is also able to form in the
presence of H
2
O
2
. Previously we demonstrated that
ferulic acid can be one of the peroxidase substrates in
ROS production [7]. In this work, we have shown that,
in the presence of NADH and ferulic acid and the
absence of exogenous H
2
O
2
, the largest drop in optical
density is observed at 314 nm, which is likely to be due
to the oxidation of ferulic acid rather than NADH
(Fig. 2). The reaction was suppressed to a large extent
by cyanide (by 63.3, 32.8, 79.9, and 89.9% in C, B
1
,
B
2
, and B
3
fractions, respectively), which indirectly
confirms the involvement of peroxidases in this pro
cess.
The endogenous H
2
O
2
is likely to be produced by
the interaction of the Anthoceros peroxidases with
NADH. It is known that the effects of mutual activa
tion or inhibition are observed in joint oxidation of the
peroxidases substrates with very different reactivities
[14]. In this case, the activation of oxidation of a
slowly oxidized substrate and the partial or complete
inhibition of the transformation of a rapidly oxidized
substrate (activator) occur [14, 15]. Probably, in our
experiments, NADH acted as an activator of oxidation
of ferulic acid. Since the oxidation of peroxidase sub
strates occurs via the formation of intermediate radical
forms, it is likely that a radical form of ferulic acid can
result in the formation. It is assumed that phe
nolic radicals oxidized in peroxidasedependent reac
tions are capable of autooxidation with ROS produc
tion [15]. Therefore, assuming that under stress condi
tions NADH or other reductant is released into the
apoplast, only small amount of a reductant is required
to trigger the oxidative burst. As a result of the differ
ential substrate oxidation by peroxidase, this reductant
O
2

O
2

1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1 2 3 4
Oxidized odianisidine, nmol g
1
dry mass s
1
Fig. 1. Activity of peroxidase in the A. natalensis homoge
nate. 1, Control; 2, after dehydration during 24 h; 3, after
dehydration during 24 h and 1h rehydration; 4, extracel
lular solution obtained after incubation and isolation of the
thallus from rehydration solution.
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
A
Ferulic acid
, 1 min
, 20 min
NADH
220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 400 380
nm
Fig. 2. Absorption spectra of 55 M NADH, 0.1 mM fer
ulic acid, and the peroxidase oxidation (POX) reaction of
substrates: 0.11 mM NADH and 0.1 mM ferulic acid in
0.73 M sodium citrate buffer, pH 5.5 during 20 min in the
presence of B
1
fraction. Scanning rate, 1920 nm/min.
Table 1. Activity of enzymes from intracellular fraction of
A. natalensis expressed as the rate of substrate (S) decompo
sition or product (P) formation
Enzymes Activity
S, nmol g
1
dry mass s
1
Catalase 10.6 0.3
Ascorbate oxidase 44.0 4.9
Ascorbate peroxidase 50.5 4.1
P, nmol g
1
dry mass s
1
DOPAoxidase (tyrosinase) 114.6 9.9
DOPAperoxidase 129.0 8.8
Peroxidase 3314.8 366.5
DOKLADY BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Vol. 447 2012
PEROXIDASES OF ANTHOCEROS NATALENSIS 359
can act as an inducer stimulating the conversion of
other substrates, such as phenols, released during
stress in the apoplast.
In this study, we have performed the first analysis of
the kinetic characteristics of Anthocerotophyta perox
idases and revealed the biochemical mechanism,
which confirms that their possible participation in
ROS production under stress conditions through sub
stratesubstrate interaction. Our data demonstrate
that, along with the known cytological and morpho
logical similarities to vascular plants, Anthoceroto
phyta also have a certain similarity of the characteris
tics of functioning of redox enzymes. It can be
assumed that ROS production by peroxidases is an
evolutionarily ancient process arising as a defense
mechanism in order to enhance the resistance of
higher plants and their adaptation to changing envi
ronmental conditions and successful colonization of
various environmental niches by them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by the Russian Founda
tion for Basic Research and the National Research
Foundation of the Republic of South Africa (project
no. 110493962RFBRSA) and the Council for
Grants of the President of the Russian Federation
(Program of State Support for Leading Scientific
Schools of Russia, project no. NSh825.2012.4).
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Table 2. The maximum rate (V
max
) and the Michaelis con
stant (K
M
) for odianisidine oxidation by the A. natalensis
peroxidases
Fraction
V
max
, nmol g
1
dry mass s
1
K
M
, mM
C 4163 0.20
B
1
674 0.12
B
2
732 0.14
B
3
344 0.13
Note. C, intracellular fraction. Fractions of proteins linked to the
cell wall by (B
1
) hydrogen bonds, (B
2
) VanderWaals forces and
hydrophobic interactions, and (B
3
) ionic bonds