Table 1.

Effect of NO donors on NO content and LIP in sorghum embryonic axes after 24 h of seed imbibition

	FW (mg axis−1)	Electrolyte leakage (%)	NO (nmol g−1 FW)	LIP(nmol g−1 FW)
Control	6.8 ± 0.3	29 ± 2	2.4 ± 0.2	8 ± 1
SNP	10.8 ± 0.6*	20 ± 1*	6.0 ± 0.9*	19 ± 2*
Photodegraded SNP	6.6 ± 0.3	27 ± 2	2.5 ± 0.6	9 ± 1
DETA NONOate	9.7 ± 0.9*	18 ± 1*	6.2 ± 0.6*	15.2 ± 0.5*

Sorghum seeds were exposed 24 h to distilled water (control) or 1 mM of the following chemicals: SNP, photodegraded SNP, and DETA NONOate. Axes were excised from seeds and employed for assays. NO content was determined by EPR in the presence of N-methyl-D-glucamine dithiocarbamate-Fe²⁺ as spin trap. LIP was estimated through the formation of DF-Fe (III) complexes in samples added with 1 mM DF and examined at low temperature EPR.

^*Significantly different from values for control embryonic axes at p < 0.05 (GraphPad InStat for Windows Version 3.0; GraphPad Software Inc.,).