抄録
Reduced glutathione (GSH), an abundant antioxidant, is associated with bolting and flowering, the key steps of the life cycle of rosette plants. Chilling, an oxidative stress, accelerates bolting and flowering followed by senescence, this effect being enhanced by GSH and blocked by an inhibitor of GSH biosynthesis. Other thiol compounds such as dithiothreitol have no inductive/enhancing effect on bolting. These suggest that GSH specifically regulates the termination of life rather than protects the plants from oxidative stresses. In Arabidopsis, three flowering-determinant genes, FT, LFY and SOC1, are highlighted, but the transcript levels of these genes have no relation with rosette GSH levels, indicative that the accelerating effect of GSH on bolting, flowering and senescence are provoked through an unknown mechanism. We here propose a mechanism explaining the paradoxical action of GSH on life span. This mechanism would provide a general explanation for many physiological phenomena regarding flowering.
