Sequential effects of cadmium on plant growth, biochemical and cyto-physiological aspects, antioxidant activity, and molecular screening of protein by SDS-PAGE in Trigonella

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of cadmium (Cd) on biochemical, physiological and cytological parameters of Trigonella treated with six different concentrations 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, or 125 ppm of metal. Germination%, root-shoot length, pigment, proline, and protein content showed a continuous decrease with increasing Cd concentrations and the maximal decline was observed at the higher concentration while the frequency of chromosomal aberrations rose with increasing metal concentration. Malondialdehyde content was found to be two-fold higher than control at 125 ppm Cd. On other hand the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GDP) rose more than two-fold and the peaked at 75 ppm of Cd. Thus, SOD and GDP were more sensitive to Cd than other involved in reactive oxygen species quenching mechanism. Additionally protein profiling by SDS-PAGE revealed that there was 89% polymorphism and considerable inter-specific variation in the analyzed accessions. Variation in the major bands was present in case of S1 and S5, whereas the accessions showed differences for the minor bands. Three new bands such as 30, 33, and 34 were present only in case of S5 which might be related to improvement of traits studied in Trigonella.

Keywords:

• biochemistry
• cyto-physiology
• pigment content
• Trigonella
• cadmium