ABSTRACT
Cell membranes are among cell components damaged under the conditions of water deficit. Water deficit modifies the cell and organelle membranes and thus alters their functions and cell metabolism [1]. The alterations occur at the fatty acid composition of biological membranes. The content of saturated fatty acid increases while the content unsaturated fatty acid decreases [2]. These changes reflect on the activity of enzymes associated with chloroplast and mitochondrial membranes and result in decreasing the functional activity of these organelles [3]. As known from the literature, regulators of plant growth and development improve their tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, to water deficit in particular [4]. One of such growth regulators is melaphen – a melamine salt of bis(oxymetyl) phosphonic acid [5]:
The aim of this work is study the effect of insufficient watering and the plant growth regulator – melaphen on the fatty acids composition lipid fraction of mitochondrial membranes and bioenergetical function of 5-day pea seedling mitochondria.
