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Abstract
Cadmium (Cd) toxicity is a worldwide problem for crop production. The present work used hydroponic experiments to investigate the ameliorating effects and physiological mechanisms of glutathione (GSH) mitigation of Cd toxicity in cucumber seedlings. The results revealed that Cd was mainly accumulated in roots of cucumber, 100 μM GSH pretreatment in 50 μM Cd solution significantly recovered Cd-induced growth inhibition, improved photosynthetic and chlorophyll fluorescence performance. Moreover, external GSH obviously depressed hydroxyl free radical (·OH) and malondialdehyde accumulation, increased the total antioxidant capacity in cucumber exposed to Cd. Results indicated that pre-treatment of GSH can alleviate Cd toxicity by reducing Cd uptake and ROS accumulation, reduce the negative consequences of oxidative stress caused by Cd toxicity, moreover protect photosynthetic machinery from damaging, balance nutrients and antioxidants in cucumber.
Highlights
Heavy metal contamination has become one of the most important environmental problems worldwide
Treatments were conducted on the 6th day after transplanting: (1) control, basal nutrient solution; (2) GSH, 100 μM GSH was added on the 5th day after transplanting and on the day (6th day, i.e. after 24 hours pre-treated with GSH) replaced with basal nutrient solution; (3) Cd, as 50 μM CdCl2; and (4) Cd+GSH, 24 h pre-treated with 100 μM GSH+50 μM Cd, GSH was added on the5th day after transplanting and on the second day replaced with Cd
Pretreatment with 100 μM GSH for 24 h before 50 μM Cd stress (Cd+GSH) significantly alleviated Cd-induced growth inhibition, i.e. after 5 days Cd+GSH treatment, SPAD value, plant height and root length increased significantly by 12.8%, 11.5% and 21.7% compared with Cd alone treatment
Summary
Heavy metal contamination has become one of the most important environmental problems worldwide. Cd even in low concentration could enter crop plants and preferentially concentrate in their edible parts; Cd is a toxic trace pollutant for humans, animals and plants via food chain (BUR et al, 2010). Large number of animals exposed to high concentration of Cd have been found suffering from mutagenic, carcinogenic and teratogenic (DEGRAEVE, 1981). Cd can cause photosynthesis reduction, nutrient uptake decrease, and visible injury symptoms, such as chlorosis, growth inhibition, root tips browning, and death (KAHLE, 1993; WANG et al, 2011; LIU et al, 2015). It is urgently necessary to develop approaches to prevent Cd accumulation in plant edible parts so as to alleviate health risks associated with exposure to highly Cdcontaining food
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