Differential cadmium stress tolerance in wheat genotypes under mycorrhizal association

ABSTRACT

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi display efficient association with the land plants and is known to protect plants against various abiotic stresses including heavy metal stress. This work reports the synergistic effects of natural genotypic variation and AM association in cadmium (Cd) stress alleviation. Two genotypes of wheat viz. RAJ 4161 (resistant) and PBW 343 (sensitive) were subjected to different concentrations of Cd (0, 100, 200 and 300 mg Cd kg⁻¹ soil) for 30 days. Cd application resulted in increased lipid peroxidation and decreased plant growth. However, AM inoculated RAJ 4161 displayed significantly higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and calcium (Ca), iron (Fe)and zinc (Zn) concentration in plants. The coordination of increased antioxidant activity and high nutrient content in RAJ 4161 indicated better protective mechanism as compared to PBW 343.

KEYWORDS:

• Cadmium
• wheat genotypes
• arbuscular mycorrhiza
• antioxidative enzymes
• nutrient contents

Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful to TERI University, New Delhi, India, for providing AM fungi, Rhizophagus intraradices.

Funding

Financial support by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi, India, to Pooja Parmar is gratefully acknowledged.