Tropospheric ozone and plants: absorption, responses, and consequences

Foliar mycobiome remains unaltered under urban air-pollution but differentially express stress-related genes

Air pollution caused by tropospheric ozone contributes to the decline of forest ecosystems; for instance, sacred fir, Abies religiosa (Kunth) Schltdl. & Cham. forests in the peri-urban region of Mexico City. Individual trees within these forests exhibit variation in their response to ozone exposure, including the severity of visible symptoms in needles. Using RNA-Seq metatranscriptomic data and ITS2 metabarcoding, we investigated whether symptom variation correlates with the taxonomic and functional composition of fungal mycobiomes from needles collected in this highly polluted area in the surroundings of Mexico City. Our findings indicate that ozone-related symptoms do not significantly correlate with changes in the taxonomic composition of fungal mycobiomes. However, genes coding for 30 putative proteins were differentially expressed in the mycobiome of asymptomatic needles, including eight genes previously associated with resistance to oxidative stress. These results suggest that fungal communities likely play a role in mitigating the oxidative burst caused by tropospheric ozone in sacred fir. Our study illustrates the feasibility of using RNA-Seq data, accessible from global sequence repositories, for the characterization of fungal communities associated with plant tissues, including their gene expression.

Elevated tropospheric ozone and crop production: potential negative effects and plant defense mechanisms

Ozone (O3) levels on Earth are increasing because of anthropogenic activities and natural processes. Ozone enters plants through the leaves, leading to the overgeneration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the mesophyll and guard cell walls. ROS can damage chloroplast ultrastructure and block photosynthetic electron transport. Ozone can lead to stomatal closure and alter stomatal conductance, thereby hindering carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation. Ozone-induced leaf chlorosis is common. All of these factors lead to a reduction in photosynthesis under O3 stress. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of O3 disrupts plant physiological processes, including water and nutrient uptake, respiration, and translocation of assimilates and metabolites. As a result, plant growth and reproductive performance are negatively affected. Thus, reduction in crop yield and deterioration of crop quality are the greatest effects of O3 stress on plants. Increased rates of hydrogen peroxide accumulation, lipid peroxidation, and ion leakage are the common indicators of oxidative damage in plants exposed to O3 stress. Ozone disrupts the antioxidant defense system of plants by disturbing enzymatic activity and non-enzymatic antioxidant content. Improving photosynthetic pathways, various physiological processes, antioxidant defense, and phytohormone regulation, which can be achieved through various approaches, have been reported as vital strategies for improving O3 stress tolerance in plants. In plants, O3 stress can be mitigated in several ways. However, improvements in crop management practices, CO2 fertilization, using chemical elicitors, nutrient management, and the selection of tolerant crop varieties have been documented to mitigate O3 stress in different plant species. In this review, the responses of O3-exposed plants are summarized, and different mitigation strategies to decrease O3 stress-induced damage and crop losses are discussed. Further research should be conducted to determine methods to mitigate crop loss, enhance plant antioxidant defenses, modify physiological characteristics, and apply protectants.

Trends in Summer-Time Tropospheric Ozone during COVID-19 Lockdown in Indian Cities Might Forecast a Higher Future Risk

High concentrations of tropospheric ozone (O3) is a serious concern in India. The generation and atmospheric dynamics of this trace gas depend on the availability of its precursors and meteorological variables. Like other parts of the world, the COVID-19 imposed lockdown and restrictions on major anthropogenic activities executed a positive impact on the ambient air quality with reduced primary pollutants/precursors load. In spite of this, several reports pointed towards a higher O3 in major Indian cities during the lockdown. The present study designed with 30 pan-Indian mega-, class I-, and class II-cities revealed critical and contrasting aspects of the geographical location, source, precursor, and meteorological variable dependency of the spatial and temporal O3 formation. This unexpected O3 increase in the major cities might forecast the probable future risks for the National Air Quality policies, especially O3 pollution management, in the Indian sub-continent. The results also pointed towards the severity of the north Indian air quality, followed by the western and eastern parts. We believe these results will definitely pave the way for researchers and policy-makers for predicting/framing regional and/or national O3 management strategies in the future.

A growth and biochemistry of ten high yielding genotypes of Pakistani rice (Oryza sativa L.) at maturity under elevated tropospheric ozone

Experimental studies were conducted to estimate the possible damage caused to ten rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes of Pakistan by tropospheric ozone. The experimental site is located at 31.4504° N and 73.1350° E, at an altitude of 184 m.a.s level with an average annual rainfall of 784 mm. A suitable and agile method was adopted to assess tolerance and susceptibility in rice genotypes at an early growth stage. Genotype Injury response, growth and biochemical parameters were measured to estimate possible effects of ozone, which was subsequently proclaimed as a criterion for ozone tolerance. Rice genotypes were subjected to ozone concentrations of 70 pbb (Current ambient) and 120 pbb (expected in near future) under a polytunnel. The findings indicated that ozone, an atmospheric pollutant, substantially harmed crop growth and metabolism, as well as inflicted a specific type of foliar injury that caused early leaf senescence. Rice genotype IR-9 followed by Punjab-Basmati and Ksk-434 appeared to be the most susceptible, whereas Basmati-515 followed by Basmati 2000 and super-Basmati were found to be Ozone-tolerant. Plant genotypes grown under elevated ozone showed 13.45% and 11.35% reduction in total root and shoot dry weight, and 25.54% and 6.6% decrease in plant leaf area and plant total length respectively compared to the control group. A significant interaction between treatment × chemical components and growth parameters was also found. The Present study confirms a direct relationship between visual response and growth as well as biochemical parameters. Declared results were statistically analyzed by using analysis of variance at confidence level of p < 0.05.

Ascorbic Acid and Ozone: Novel Perspectives to Explain an Elusive Relationship

A huge amount of studies highlighted the importance of high ascorbic acid (AA) content in ozone tolerance, yet the relationship between them appears more complex than a simple direct correlation. Sometimes the connection is clear, for example, two Arabidopsis mutants defective in the main AA biosynthetic pathway (vtc mutants) were identified by means of their ozone sensitivity. However, some low-AA containing mutants are relatively tolerant, suggesting that AA location/availability could be more relevant than total content. A clear distinction should also be made between ozone tolerance obtained when AA content is increased by experimental supplementation (exogenous AA), and the physiological role of plant-synthesized AA (endogenous AA), whose amount is apparently subjected to tight regulation. Recent findings about the role of AA in signal transduction and epigenetic regulation of gene expression open new routes to further research.

Combined effects of O3 and UV radiation on secondary metabolites and endogenous hormones of soybean leaves

Enhanced ultraviolet radiation (UV) and elevated tropospheric ozone (O3) may individually cause reductions in the growth and productivity of important agricultural crops. However, research regarding their combined effects on important agricultural crops is still scarce, especially on changes in secondary metabolites and endogenous hormones, which are important protective substances and signal components that control plant responses to environment stresses. In this study, using an experimental setup of open top chambers, we monitored the responses of seed yield per plant, leaf secondary metabolites and leaf endogenous hormones under the stress of elevated O3 and enhanced UV radiation individually, as well as their combined stress. The results indicated that elevated O3 (110 ± 10 nmol mol-1 for 8 hours per day) and enhanced UV radiation (1.73 kJ h-1 m-2) significantly decreased seed yield per plant. Concentrations of rutin, queretin and total flavonoids were significantly increased under the elevated O3 treatment or the enhanced UV radiation treatment or the combination treatment at flowering and podding stages, and concentrations of rutin, queretin and total flavonoids showed significant correlations with seed yield per plant. Concentrations of ABA and IAA decreased under the three treatments. There was a significant positive correlation between the ABA concentration and seed yield and a negative correlation between the IAA concentration and seed yield. We concluded that the combined stress of elevated O3 and UV radiation significantly decreased seed yield per plant. Yield reduction was associated with changes in the concentrations of flavonoids, ABA and IAA in soybean leaves. The effects of the combined O3 and UV stress were always greater than those of the individual stresses alone.

The response of marigold (Tagetes erecta Linn.) to ozone: impacts on plant growth and leaf physiology

Progressively increasing ozone (O₃) concentrations pose a potential threat to the value of marigold (Tagetes erecta Linn.), a plant widely used in urban landscaping. The response of marigold to elevated O₃ has been reported earlier, but the mechanisms underlying the O₃ effect have not been clearly elucidated. In the present study, we exposed marigold "Moonsong Deep Orange" plants to elevated O₃, including ambient non-filtered air (NF) plus 60 ppb (NF+60) and 120 ppb (NF+120) O₃, to assess visible injury and the possible physiological consequences of this pollutant. Yellow lesions appeared after 4 days under NF+120 treatment and 12 days under NF+60 treatment, with 85.6% and 36.8% of the leaves being injured at harvest time, respectively. Compared with NF, NF+60 inhibited leaf photosynthesis, stem-diameter growth, and biomass production significantly, while the parameters were decreased more by NF+120. Although the stomatal conductance decreased under elevated O₃ exposure, the O₃ flux into leaves increased by 28.0-104.8% under NF+60 treatment and 57.5-145.6% under NF+120 treatment. The total ascorbic acid (ASA) content increased due to elevated O₃ exposure, while the reduced ASA content did not, resulting in a decreased ratio of reduced to total ASA. A lower level of jasmonic acid (JA) was observed under elevated O₃ exposure. In conclusion, the impacts of elevated O₃ on marigold plants may be ascribed to increased O₃ flux into leaves and reduced protective capacity of leaves to convert oxidized to reduced ASA and synthesize endogenous JA.

Comparative analysis of seed transcriptomes of ambient ozone-fumigated 2 different rice cultivars

High ozone (O3) concentrations not only damage plant life but also cause considerable losses in plant productivity. To screen for molecular factors usable as potential biomarkers to identify for O3-sensitive and -tolerant lines and design O3 tolerant crops, our project examines the effects of O3 on rice, using high-throughput omics approaches. In this study, we examined growth and yield parameters of 4 rice cultivars fumigated for a life-time with ambient air (mean O3: 31.4-32.7 ppb) or filtered air (mean O3: 6.6-8.3 ppb) in small open-top chambers (sOTCs) to select O3-sensitive (indica cv Takanari) and O3-tolerant (japonica cv Koshihikari) cultivars for analysis of seed transcriptomes using Agilent 4 × 44K rice oligo DNA chip. Total RNA from dry mature dehusked seeds of Takanari and Koshihikari cultivars was extracted using a modified protocol based on cethyltrimethylammonium bromide extraction buffer and phenol-chloroform-isoamylalcohol treatment, followed by DNA microarray analysis using the established dye-swap method. Direct comparison of Koshihikari and Takanari O3 transcriptomes in seeds of rice plants fumigated with ambient O3 in sOTCs successfully showed that genes encoding proteins involved in jasmonic acid, GABA biosynthesis, cell wall and membrane modification, starch mobilization, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis are differently regulated in sensitive cv Takanari and tolerant cv Koshihikari. MapMan analysis further mapped the molecular factors activated by O3, confirming Takanari is rightly classified as an O3 sensitive genotype.

Evaluating the response of two high yielding Indian rice cultivars against ambient and elevated levels of ozone by using open top chambers

A continuous increase in the background level of tropospheric ozone (O(3)) has become a major challenge for present and future agricultural productivity at worldwide. Present study was designed to assess the impact of ambient (present) and elevated (future) concentrations of O(3) on two cultivars of Indian rice (Oryza sativa L. cvs Malviya dhan 36 and Shivani). Shoot and root lengths, number of leaves and total leaf area were severely affected by both ambient and elevated concentrations of O(3). Photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic efficiency (F(v)/F(m)) were also reduced by O(3) with more drastic effects under elevated levels of O(3). Leaf proteome showed reduction of some major proteins due to O(3). Pollen viability, viable florets plant(-1) and economic yield also showed significant negative impact under O(3)-exposure in both the test cultivars. The experimental findings depict that both the cultivars of rice demonstrate differential response against O(3), and it may help the plant breeders in selection of resistant cultivars for the area having higher concentrations of O(3).