Simultaneous exposure of sulphur and calcium hinder As toxicity: Up-regulation of growth, mineral nutrients uptake and antioxidants system

Abstract

The current study was carried out to investigate the role of exogenous sulphur (K2SO4: S; 60 mg S kg−1 sand) and calcium (CaCl2: Ca; 250 mg Ca kg−1 sand) individually as well as in combination (S + Ca) in ameliorating the inhibitory effect of As (Na2HAsO4·7H2O: As1; 15 mg As kg−1 sand and As2; 30 mg As kg−1 sand) by analyzing biomass accumulation, mineral nutrients uptake, photosynthetic pigments content, redox status of the cell, enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense system in Brassica juncea L. seedlings. Biomass accumulation, uptake of mineral nutrients, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids) content and the activity of proline dehydrogenase (ProDH) declined with increasing accumulation of As in root as well as leaves in As dose dependent manner. Contrary to this, exogenous application of S, Ca and S + Ca, markedly reduced the negative impact of As on above captioned traits except ProDH activity. On the other hand, ROS and their biomarkers (superoxide radical; O₂˙ˉ, hydrogen peroxide; H2O2, malondialdehyde; MDA equivalents content and membrane damage; electrolyte leakage), activities of enzymatic (superoxide dismutase; SOD, peroxidase; POD, catalase; CAT and glutathione-S-transferase; GST) and non-enzymatic antioxidant i.e. proline (Pro) content and its enzyme pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase; P5CS activity were increased in root and leaves under As stress. While, exogenous application of S, Ca and S + Ca, further enhanced the activities of above mentioned enzymes and Pro content thereby causing considerable reduction in O₂˙ˉ, H2O2, MDA equivalents content and electrolyte leakage. This study suggests that exogenous application of S and/or Ca efficiently (particularly S + Ca) lowered the negative impact of As on biomass accumulation in Brassica seedlings by improving the uptake of essential mineral nutrients’, content of photosynthetic pigments, activities of enzymatic and content of non-enzymatic antioxidants.