The physiological effect of fluorene on Triticum aestivum, Medicago sativa, and Helianthus annus

Figures & data

Figure 1. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil (Control, 50 and 100 mg kg⁻¹) on the seed germination rates of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications and error bars indicate SD. Different letters in each species show significantly different values at p < 0.05.

Table 1. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil (0, 500 and 100 mg kg⁻¹) on the growth parameters of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

	Fluorene (mg kg^−1)	Plant species
		Wheat	Alfalfa	Sunflower
Shoot Height (cm)	0	10.0 ± 0.63^a	2.47 ± 0.19^a	5.62 ± 0.87^a
	50	9.27 ± 0.61^ab	2.27 ± 0.11^ab	3.79 ± 0.57^b
	100	8.49 ± 0.45^b	2.06 ± 0.10^b	2.46 ± 0.35^b
Shoot FW (g)	0	74 ± 6^a	34 ± 4^a	417 ± 24^a
	50	63 ± 4^b	21 ± 1^b	145 ± 5^b
	100	60 ± 3^b	18 ± 4^b	72 ± 19^c
Root FW (g)	0	78 ± 2^a	8.0 ± 0.03^a	54 ± 5^a
	50	69 ± 3^b	6.7 ± 0.4^b	12 ± 1^b
	100	65 ± 2^b	6.6 ± 0.03^b	5.2 ± 1^c
Shoot DW (g)	0	24 ± 5^a	1.0 ± 0.0^a	33 ± 4^a
	50	16 ± 2^b	0.09 ± 0.02^b	21 ± 7^b
	100	12 ± 3^b	0.09 ± 0.01^b	12 ± 4^b
Root DW (g)	0	5 ± 0.03^a	0.23 ± 0.02^a	5.1 ± 0.5^a
	50	4 ± 0.01^b	0.18 ± 0.01^b	1.5 ± 0.03^b
	100	4 ± 0.02^b	0.16 ± 0.04^b	1.1 ± 0.0.2^b
Shoot/Root DW	0	4.80	4.35	6.47
	50	4.00	5.00	14.00
	100	3.00	5.63	10.91
Shoot/Root FW	0	0.95	4.25	7.72
	50	0.91	3.13	12.08
	100	0.92	2.73	13.85

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications ± SD and different letters in each parameter of each species indicate significantly different values at p < 0.05. DW: Dry Weight, FW: Fresh Weight.

Table 2. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil on catalase (μM H₂O₂ min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ protein) and peroxidase (μM guaiacol min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ protein) activity in the shoots and roots of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

	Fluorene (mg kg^−1)	Peroxidase		Catalase
		Shoot	Root	Shoot	Root
Wheat	0	2.34 ± 0.18^c	3.44 ± 0.37^a	372 ± 71^a	1.71 ± 0.15^a
	50	3.60 ± 0.35^b	1.45 ± 0.29^b	283 ± 49^a	1.26 ± 0.21^b
	100	4.54 ± 0.31^a	1.24 ± 0.25^b	153 ± 23^b	1.09 ± 0.2^b
Alfalfa	0	2.04 ± 0.38^a	1.18 ± 0.11^a	11.5 ± 0.7^a	1.33 ± 0.16^a
	50	1.97 ± 0.28^a	1.21 ± 0.05^a	2.9 ± 0.4^b	1.13 ± 0.08^a
	100	1.24 ± 0.11^b	1.33 ± 0.06^a	2.7 ± 0.4^b	0.73 ± 0.06^b
Sunflower	0	0.35 ± 0.06^a	0.14 ± 0.02^a	280 ± 15^a	2.80 ± 0.7^a
	50	0.26 ± 0.03^ab	0.13 ± 0.00^a	304 ± 55^a	3.25 ± 0.15^a
	100	0.16 ± 0.03^b	0.11 ± 0.01^b	135 ± 12^b	1.37 ± 0.17^b

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications ± SD and different letters for each organ of each species indicate significantly different values at p < 0.05.

Figure 2. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil (Control, 50 and 100 mg kg⁻¹) on total soluble protein content in the shoots and roots of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications and error bars indicate SD. Different letters in each species show significantly different values at p < 0.05.

Figure 3. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil (Control, 50 and 100 mg kg⁻¹) on malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the shoots and roots of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications and error bars indicate SD. Different letters in each species show significantly different values at p < 0.05.

Table 3. The effects of different fluorene concentrations in soil on photosynthetic pigments content of wheat, alfalfa, and sunflower plants

	Fluorene (mg kg^−1)	Pigment (mg g^−1 FW)
		Chlorophyll a	Chlorophyll b	Chlorophyll a + b	Carotenoids
Wheat	0	0.83 ± 0.31^a	0.36 ± 0.06^ab	1.19 ± 0.37^ab	0.41 ± 0.08^a
	50	0.30 ± 0.11^b	0.26 ± 0.04^b	0.56 ± 0.15^b	0.38 ± 0.06^a
	100	1.32 ± 0.35^a	0.41 ± 0.05^a	1.73 ± 0.41^a	0.48 ± 0.11^a
Alfalfa	0	0.47 ± 0.02^a	0.21 ± 0.003^a	0.68 ± 0.01^a	0.33 ± 0.09^a
	50	0.19 ± 0.04^b	0.19 ± 0.002^b	0.38 ± 0.04^b	0.31 ± 0.05^a
	100	0.23 ± 0.06^b	0.19 ± 0.003^b	0.39 ± 0.06^b	0.35 ± 0.08^a
Sunflower	0	0.28 ± 0.09^b	0.18 ± 0.02^b	0.45 ± 0.09^b	0.51 ± 0.12^a
	50	0.35 ± 0.02^b	0.23 ± 0.02^ab	0.59 ± 0.06^b	0.43 ± 0.08^a
	100	0.80 ± 0.21^a	0.27 ± 0.05^a	1.07 ± 0.26^a	0.41 ± 0.09^a

Notes: The data represent the mean of four replications ± SD and different letters for each parameter in each species indicate significantly different values at p < 0.05.