Abstract
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the oldest pulse crops cultivated from ancient time both in Asia and Europe. India is the largest producer of chickpea in the world, sharing 65 and 70% of production and total global area, respectively. The inhibition of plant growth and crop productivity by excess heavy metals is a global agricultural problem. Therefore, a pot experiment was conducted at wire house of the Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during Rabi season of 2009-10, using a complete randomized design with four replications and five treatments. Our experimental findings reveal that excessive amount of copper (Cu) (200 mg/kg) and arsenic (As) (200 mg/kg) in soil caused a mark reduction in nitrate reductase enzyme activity at both growth stages. However, a little increment was found in proline content, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity under higher doses of Cu and As at both growth stages. The study aimed to get more information on physiological changes in activity of antioxidant enzymes under heavy metal toxicity. Key words: Antioxidant enzymes, chickpea, heavy metals, nitrate reductase, proline content.
Highlights
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the oldest pulse crops cultivated from ancient time both in Asia and Europe
India is the largest producer of chickpea in the world, sharing 65 and 70% of production and total global area, respectively
Antioxidant enzyme activities were done on two separate plants from each pot at two different growth stages through destructive techniques
Summary
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the oldest pulse crops cultivated from ancient time both in Asia and Europe. India is the largest producer of chickpea in the world, sharing 65 and 70% of production and total global area, respectively. It is grown in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions as winter season crop. Fifty three out of the ninety naturally occurring elements have density higher than 5 g cm-3 but not all of them are of biological importance Based on their solubility under physiological conditions, seventeen heavy metals may be available for living cells and are of importance to organism and ecosystem (Weast, 1984).
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