Effect of protein synthesis inhibitors on ultraweak photon emission during germination of corn

Ultraweak photon emission in germination of plant seeds which includes spontaneous photon emission and delayed photon emission induced by external light is a kind of life information. Spontaneous photon emission is closely related to important life processes such as DNA synthesis, cell division, respiratory metabolism and biological oxidation. Delayed photon emission is related to functional status of biological systems. The study of ultraweak photon emission in germination of plant seeds has very important significance in the mechanism of seed germination, resistance evaluation, identification of germplasm and so on. In order to reveal the ultraweak photon emissions mechanism in seed germination process, the transcription inhibitor of protein synthesis i.e. actinomyin D (AMD) and translation inhibitor i.e. cycloheximide (CHM) were used to treat germinating corn seed respectively. The changes of the fresh quality, spontaneous photon emission and delayed photon emission of germinating corn were studied in this paper. The results showed that the 50 μg/mL AMD partly inhibited the increase of fresh quality during the germination of corn, 100 μg/mL CHM completely inhibited the increase of fresh quality of germinating corn, and there was a positive correlation between the spontaneous photon emission and seed's fresh quality during the germination of corn (correlation coefficient was 0.96235). It was implied that the intensity of spontaneous photon emission from germinating corn could be used as a signal for indicating the germinating status of corn. The study also found that AMD and CHM had different inhibitory effects for the increase of delayed photon emission during germination of corn, of which, the inhibition from AMD was stronger than CHM. It was speculated that respiratory metabolism and RNA/DNA synthesis in germinating corn could be the sources of spontaneous photon emission. The further study on delayed photon emission induced by external light found that the initial photon number I0 and coherence time τ of kinetic parameters about delayed photon emission during the germination of corn gradually increased; CHM treatment partially inhibited the increase of I0 and τ, and the inhibition of AMD was greater than CHM. According to biological significance of these kinetic parameters about delayed photon emission, it was suggested that CHM treatment caused the disorder of respiratory metabolic system and decreased the intensity of respiratory metabolism, and AMD treatment caused the disorder of respiratory metabolic system and RNA/DNA synthesis system and completely inhibited the increase in respiration of cells during germination of corn. The area under the curve of delayed photon emission was called delayed photon emission integral intensity, represented by I(T). The study in this paper showed that the delayed photon emission integral intensity I(T) gradually increased in corn germination process, CHM treatment inhibited the increase of I(T), AMD treatment completely inhibited the increase of I(T), and the inhibition of CHM and AMD on I(T) was the same as that on I0. This result further illustrated that the RNA/DNA synthesis reactions and respiratory metabolic system could be the sources of delayed photon emission from germinating corn seeds. The size of delayed photon emission integral intensity I(T) could be expressed as the strength of the respiratory metabolism and RNA/DNA synthesis reactions during the germination of corn seeds. These research results provide a reference for understanding the mechanism of ultraweak photon emissions from germination seed and for corresponding technology development.