Activity of NADP-dependent glyceraldehyde-phosphate dehydrogenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in wheat leaves under water stress

The activities of NADP: glyceraldehyde-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), an enzyme complex comprising of phosphoglycerate kinase (EC 2.7.2.3) and glyceraldehyde-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.13), and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPK; EC 4.1.1.31) in seedlings and leaves of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants of the cultivars Mironovskaya 808 and Lutescens 758 have been compared under conditions of normal water supply, water deficiency, and subsequent rehydration. GAPDH activity, which determines the carbohydrate route of photosynthetic metabolism at the initial stages, is decreased by water stress to a greater extent than that of PEPK, on the activity of which non-carbohydrate metabolic pathways depend. Pretreatment of seedlings and mature plants with natural (6-benzylaminopurine) and synthetic (tidiazuron, kartolin-2, and kartolin-4) cytokinins attenuates the loss of enzyme activities during drought and facilitates their recovery within the period of rehydration; both effects are underlain by augmentation of reparation processes. The relative intensification of non-carbohydrate pathways of photosynthetic metabolism, observed under conditions of water deficiency, is accompanied by an increase in the osmotic pressure of cell sap. Possible mechanisms of this protector effect of cytokinin preparations are discussed.