Oxygen is essential for aerobic life, although reactive oxygen interme
diates can be highly toxic to cells. Superoxide radicals and hydrogen
peroxide become particularly harmful in vivo due to their reactivity w
ith transition metals like iron, producing hydroxyl radicals, which ar
e involved in DNA mutagenesis and lipid peroxidation. Con trot of the
intracellular concentration of transition metals can prevent hydroxyl
radical formation, protecting cells against oxidative damage. The iron
storage protein ferritin plays an important role in these processes,
and it has been shown that its synthesis is inducible by iron-overload
in plants. In this paper, the induction of ferritin synthesis in resp
onse to iron-overload is investigated using derooted maize plantlets.
In this system, a rapid increase of iron concentration in the leaves i
s observed, leading to ferritin mRNA and subunit accumulation. Using t
he vp2 maize mutant, it is demonstrated that abscisic acid is not invo
lved in this response, in contrast to previous results obtained using
plants induced under hydroponic culture. In de-rooted plantlets, ferri
tin transcript accumulation is inhibited when plants are co-treated by
iron and antioxidant reagents like N-acetyl cysteine or reduced gluta
thione. Furthermore, hydrogen peroxide treatment induced a dose-depend
ent ferritin mRNA accumulation at a low concentration of iron. It can
be concluded from these results that reactive oxygen intermediates are
involved in the pathway leading to ferritin synthesis in response to
iron in de-rooted maize plantlets. Ferritin emerges, therefore, as an
important component of the oxidative stress response in plants.