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ABSTRACT
The effect of Cu and Cd ions on the cyanobacterium Plectonema boryanum Gom. was studied. Growth rate of algal biomass was strongly inhibited by cadmium—it was 50 % reduced at 200 μM CdCl2, while copper added into the nutrition medium caused just about 20% reduce of growth. Chlorophyll a content decreased at the same extent after Cu and Cd treatment—it was 35% lower than the control variants. Carotenoids were almost unaffected after Cu exposure but Cd led to a slight decrease of 15% as compared to control.
The activities of antioxidative enzymes catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPER) were strongly increased following the increase of Cu concentration—they reached 100% and 180% above the control, respectively. Cd provoked 58% decrease of CAT activity and a slight enhancement of GPER at concentration 200 μM CdCl2. Glutathione reductase (GR) activity was not detected in algal cells of the all experimental variants