Abstract:
Heavy metal stress significantly impairs various aspects of plant growth and physiology, including root and shoot length, biomass production, plant water relations, membrane stability, chlorophyll content, and antioxidant enzyme activities. • The application of trehalose effectively mitigates the detrimental effects of heavy metal lead acetate stress on plants. Trehalose treatment leads to improvements in plant physiology, enhanced water relations, and strengthened antioxidant defense mechanisms. • Trehalose treatment results in reduced levels of stress markers such as malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), indicating a decrease in oxidative stress in plants subjected to heavy metal toxicity. Heavy metal is a substantially severe abiotic environmental stress that is rising in many regions of the world. Current climate change circumstances and rapid industrialization increased heavy metal accumulation in soil and water. Overall, worldwide agricultural production decreased. Trehalose, a well-known plant growth regulator, is crucial in plants' responses to a variety of abiotic conditions. The Morpho-physiological and biochemical parameters were analyzed in hydroponic research to identify the possible role of trehalose in alleviating heavy metal lead acetate stress in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) crops. In the sole and mixed form, two Pb(C2H3O2)2 (Control and 30 micron) and Article History Received: October 29, 2023, Accepted: December 24, 2023, Published: December 30, 2023. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee Roots Press, Islamabad Pakistan. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. one trehalose (50 M L-1) levels were used, and a half-strength Hoagland solution was used as a nutritional medium. The current study found that heavy metal stress had a significant negative impact on plant growth (root and shoot length), fresh and dry biomass, and plant water relations, as well as poor plant water relations, membrane stability, chlorophyll content, and antioxidant enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxide (POD), ascorbate peroxide (APX), and catalase (CAT). MDA and H2O2 are the stress markers reduced by the application of trehalose. Exogenous treatment of trehalose, on the other hand, significantly mitigates the detrimental effects of metal toxicity by altering plant physiology, enhancing water relations, and providing robust antioxidant defense against heavy metal lead acetate stress. The findings of this study provide a new dimension to scientists' understanding of the beneficial usage of trehalose in plant science and offer up new research opportunities.
Page(s):
112-121
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Plant Bulletin, Volume: 2, Issue: 2, Year: 2023
Keywords:
Sunflower
,
RWC
,
Trehalose
,
Antioxidant defense
,
Metal toxic environment
,
Lead