Jasmonic acid (JA) and gibberellic acid (GA3) mitigated Cd-toxicity in chickpea plants through restricted cd uptake and oxidative stress management

Parvaiz Ahmad,Vaseem Raja,Andrzej Bajguz,Mohammed Nasser Alyemeni,Muhammed Ashraf,Leonard Wijaya

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98753-8

Parvaiz Ahmad, Vaseem Raja + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98753-8

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Abstract

Cadmium stress is one of the chief environmental cues that can substantially reduce plant growth. In the present research, we studied the effect of jasmonic acid (JA) and gibberellic acid (GA3) applied individually and/or in combination to chickpea (Cicer arietinum) plants exposed to 150 µM cadmium sulphate. Cadmium stress resulted in reduced plant growth and pigment contents. Moreover, chickpea plants under cadmium contamination displayed higher levels of electrolytic leakage, H2O2, and malonaldehyde, as well as lower relative water content. Plants primed with JA (1 nM) and those foliar-fed with GA3 (10–6 M) showed improved metal tolerance by reducing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, malonaldehyde and electrolytic leakage, and increasing relative water content. . Osmoprotectants like proline and glycinebetaine increased under cadmium contamination. Additionally, the enzymatic activities and non-enzymatic antioxidant levels increased markedly under Cd stress, but application of JA as well as of GA3 further improved these attributes. Enzymes pertaining to the ascorbate glutathione and glyoxylase systems increased significantly when the chickpea plants were exposed to Cd. However, JA and GA3 applied singly or in combination showed improved enzymatic activities as well as nutrient uptake, whereas they reduced the metal accumulation in chickpea plants. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that JA and GA3 are suitable agents for regulating Cd stress resistance in chickpea plants.

Highlights

Cadmium stress is one of the chief environmental cues that can substantially reduce plant growth
Combined application of jasmonic acid (JA) and G A3 to the Cd-treated chickpea plants improved the length of shoots by 70.89% and that of roots by 71.60%, respectively, with reference to plants treated with Cd only
The PGRs applied individually had a beneficial effect in mitigating the injurious effects of Cd on various growth-related attributes in the chickpea plants, a significant interactive effect of the combined application of JA + GA3 + Cd was recorded for all growth variables (P ≤ 0.001), which indicates that both PGRs functioned synergistically to offset the adverse effects of Cd toxicity

Summary

Introduction

Cadmium stress is one of the chief environmental cues that can substantially reduce plant growth. Plants primed with JA (1 nM) and those foliar-fed with GA3 (10–6 M) showed improved metal tolerance by reducing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, malonaldehyde and electrolytic leakage, and increasing relative water content. Most often plants in natural environments are exposed to numerous ecological stresses that impede growth and productivity Among those stresses, heavy metal toxicity is considered to be a prime factor for soil and water pollution[1,2]. Cadmium can inhibit several significant plant activities such as membrane integrity, physiological aspects, metabolic and biochemical reactions, like photosynthesis and respiratory electron transport chain in the mitochondrion and chloroplast It severely affects mineral nutrition and water balance[9,10]. Keeping in view the earlier mentioned plausible justification, the present study was undertaken to decipher the mechanism of Cd stress tolerance in chickpea under individual and/or combined application of JA and G A3

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