DYNAMICS OF THE FORMATION OF THE PHENOLIC REDOX SYSTEM OF CONIFEROUS PLANTS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE COMMON PINE PINUS SYLVESTRIS

Abstract

The change in the quantitative composition of secondary metabolites in the forming plant tissue is associated with climatic conditions of plant growth, including seasonality and the growing season. Acclimatization of evergreen coniferous trees in boreal regions includes regulatory processes that protect the photosynthetic apparatus of needles in specific conditions. Using the example of coniferous tree – scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), new experimental data on changes in the content of secondary metabolites of phenolic nature – participants in the processes of plant tissue biosynthesis – is presented in this paper. The dynamics of the intensity of phenolic metabolism and the quantitative change of the pigment apparatus of pine needles during the growing season were investigated using a complex of physic-chemical methods (UV spectrophotometry, HPLC, redox-metry) and the composition of the phenolic fraction of the phenol-quinone redox system of the cell wall was studied. It is shown that changes in the quantitative and qualitative composition of the phenolic compounds fraction that determine the redox state of the plant matrix occurs in plant tissue throughout the growing season. It is noted that dynamic self-regulation processes involving a complex consisting of phenolic compounds, pigments and enzymatic systems are a common pattern at all stages of plant development, ensuring that they perform protective functions of the photosynthetic apparatus of the needles of evergreen coniferous trees in boreal regions.