Abstract
In a pot experiment, the effects of the bacterium strain Micrococcus roseus, native soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the fungus Glomus mosseae on the growth, P, N, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cd uptake of maize in a soil polluted with Cd were investigated. A three-factor experiment was set up in a randomized complete design with three replicates of each treatment. The factors in the experiment were as follows: 1) AMF with two levels, G1 (native AMF) and G2 (G. mosseae + G1); 2) bacterium promoting plant growth with two levels, B0 (no inoculation) and B1 (inoculation with M. roseus); and 3) cadmium with three levels (0, 100 and 200 mg Cd kg–1soil). G2 significantly increased root colonization, plant biomass, shoot nutrients and Cd uptake of plants in comparison with G1 in Cd polluted conditions. The single presence of AMF contributed to the stabilization of Cd in roots and soil. Shoot and root dry weights, and shoot nutrients uptake of plants co-inoculated with bacterium and AMF were higher than mycorrhizal plants in the soil polluted with Cd. Plants co-inoculated with bacterium and G2 had higher amount of shoot Cd uptake, root Cd uptake, Cd phytoextraction, translocation, and uptake efficiencies under both Cd concentrations than only mycorrhizal plants. The results showed that, most of the Cd was sequestered in roots of plants co-inoculated with bacterium and native AMF in the soil with 100 and 200 mg Cd kg–1.
Highlights
Cadmium is an environmental contaminant and a toxic metal for living organisms
G2 (G. mosseae + G1) significantly increased root colonization of plants in comparison with the single presence of native Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (G1) in all treatments except in soil not polluted with Cd, B1G2 (Fig. 1A)
Our study supported that G. mosseae + G1 (i.e. G2) and native AMF (i.e. G1 as non-indigenous AMF isolates to heavy metals (HMs)-contaminated area) were able to colonize roots of maize under Cd polluted conditions
Summary
Agricultural soils in many parts of the world are moderately contaminated by Cd due to long term use of phosphoric treatments, sewage sludge application as well as smelter dust spreading (Vassilev et al, 2002). The remediation of heavy metals (HMs)-contaminated environments is a challenging task because these elements are not degradable and once entering the soil they can persist for a long time. Traditional methods used for the removal of HMs from the environment are in general expensive and potentially risky due to the possibility of the generation of hazardous by-products. The use of many hyperaccumulator plants in phytoremediation technology was restricted because of their slow growth, small size, low biomass-production and rigorous demand for growing conditions (Gamalero et al, 2009; Wu et al, 2010). The obtained results from some experiments allowed the selection of some species tending to extract metals from soil, i.e. maize, sunflower and barley (Huang and Cunningham, 1996; Vassilev et al, 2002)
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