UV-B influence on singlet oxygen scavenging capacity

Susanne Neugart visited Prof. Éva Hideg in Hungary (20 days in March 2012).

Moderate UV-B influences flavonoids and singlet oxygen scavenging capacity in Brassica species.

Flavonoids are phenolics and act as antioxidants and shielding components in the plant response to UV-B exposure (Edreva 2005). Furthermore, flavonoids can quench ¹O₂ in vivo (Triantaphylidès and Havaux, 2009) and are reactive to other ROS, such as hydroxyl radical (Husain et al. 2001). Nevertheless there are less information on special reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical and their correlation to flavonoid aglycone profile (Onoue et al. 2011). The aim of the STSM was to determine the scavenging capacity for singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical of extracts from three Brassiceae tribes grown under different irradiation regimes.

During the STSM to Prof. Éva Hideg and co-workers from the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Szeged, Hungary) I have learned spectrophotometric methods to measure the scavenging capacity for singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical. The scavenging capacity was influenced more by the species than by the irradiation regime. Furthermore, the singlet oxygen scavenging capacity was more affected by the species than the hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity. In the end a correlation between flavonoids (measured at the home institute) and the scavenging capacity for singlet oxygen or hydroxyl radical should be verified.

The STSM enhances the collaboration between the two work groups. The results will help to understand the interaction of special flavonoids in photoprotection and special reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical. Furthermore, the results will influence future experiments on irradiation.