Acetic acid: a cost-effective agent for mitigation of seawater-induced salt toxicity in mung bean

Md Mezanur Rahman,Md Giashuddin Miah,A Q M Robiul Kawser,Baby Tabassum,Ashim Kumar Das,Lam-Son Phan Tran,Mohammad Golam Mostofa,Sanjida Sultana Keya,Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah,Abeer Hashem,S M Ahsan,Md Abiar Rahman,Md Robyul Islam

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51178-w

Abstract

The current study sought the effective mitigation measure of seawater-induced damage to mung bean plants by exploring the potential roles of acetic acid (AA). Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that foliar application of AA under control conditions improved mung bean growth, which was interlinked to enhanced levels of photosynthetic rate and pigments, improved water status and increased uptake of K+, in comparison with water-sprayed control. Mung bean plants exposed to salinity exhibited reduced growth and biomass production, which was emphatically correlated with increased accumulations of Na+, reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde, and impaired photosynthesis, as evidenced by PCA and heatmap clustering. AA supplementation ameliorated the toxic effects of seawater, and improved the growth performance of salinity-exposed mung bean. AA potentiated several physio-biochemical mechanisms that were connected to increased uptake of Ca2+ and Mg2+, reduced accumulation of toxic Na+, improved water use efficiency, enhanced accumulations of proline, total free amino acids and soluble sugars, increased catalase activity, and heightened levels of phenolics and flavonoids. Collectively, our results provided new insights into AA-mediated protective mechanisms against salinity in mung bean, thereby proposing AA as a potential and cost-effective chemical for the management of salt-induced toxicity in mung bean, and perhaps in other cash crops.

Highlights

Environmental pollution, including soil pollution, is a great threat to world agriculture, endangering sustainable productivity and future food supply[1]
We observed that seawater induced an evident salt stress, which was manifested at phenotypic level in terms of wilting, yellowing of leaves, stunted growth, early senescence, chlorosis, necrosis and even burning of entire leaves (Fig. 1a)
Soil salinity-mediated deleterious effects were manifested as the reductions of shoot height, primary root length and total leaf area per trifoliolate, which together contributed to the biomass loss of mung bean (Fig. 1a–f), as they were reported in other legumes like faba bean (Vicia faba)[51] and chickpea (Cicer arietinum)[52]

Summary

Introduction

Environmental pollution, including soil pollution, is a great threat to world agriculture, endangering sustainable productivity and future food supply[1]. Biotechnological approach is promising in dealing with salt stress[8,21,22], simple and less expensive technologies should be developed for low-income countries like Bangladesh where inadequate investment in research and development does not enable scientists to research and develop genetically modified crops In this context, exploration of the potential roles of exogenous chemicals, including signaling molecules, may provide an effective solution for the improvement of plant resiliency toward the adverse effects of ever-changing environmental assaults[23,24,25]. Acetic acid (AA) has recently come into limelight because of the finding on its involvement in enhancement of drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana, rapeseed (Brassica napus), maize (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rice (Oryza sativa)[26] With this clue, we anticipate that this cost-effective and accessible AA might be a cutting-edge solution in the management of salt stress in a prospective crop mung bean in order to enhance its cultivation and production in coastal areas of Bangladesh. The intrinsic mechanisms AA uses to confer plant tolerance to salinity, if it does at all, are still elusive, requiring in-depth investigations using a variety of crop species

Methods

Results

Conclusion