Abstract
Heavy metal contamination is one of the current serious environmental and agricultural soil issues, and it is mainly due to anthropogenic activities. Vanadium (V) is found in low concentrations in a wide range of plants and is widely distributed in soils. The current study aimed to determine how pepper seedlings responded to various V concentrations, as well as the detrimental effects of V on growth, root morphological traits, photosynthetic performance, reactive oxygen species (ROS), osmolytes production, antioxidant enzyme activities, and V uptake. Pepper seedlings (5 weeks old) were grown in hydroponic culture with six V levels (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mg L−1 NH4VO3). After two weeks of V treatment, low level of V (10, 20 mg L−1) enhanced the growth status, conversely higher V (30, 40, and 50 mg L−1) level reduced the growth. The leaf gas exchange elements, pigments molecules, and root growth characteristics are also affected by higher V concentrations. Moreover, V uptake was higher in roots than in the shoot of pepper seedlings. Similarly, osmolytes content, ROS production, and antioxidant enzymes activities were significantly improved under V stress. Concluding, lower V (10, 20 mg L−1) concentration positively affected pepper growth, and higher V (30, 40, and 50 mg L−1) concentration had a detrimental effect on pepper physiological and biochemical mechanisms.
Highlights
The outcomes showed that growth attributes (FSW, fresh root weight (FRW), dry shoot weight (DSW), dry root weight (DRW)) increased considerably after two weeks of V (10 mg L−1 V) treatment as compared to control (0 mg L−1 V) treatment (Table 1)
Our findings revealed that higher V (30, 40, and 50 mg L−1 V) concentrations had a significant impact on the photosynthetic activities of pepper seedlings (Figure 5)
The present results revealed that leaf gas exchange elements such as photosynthetic assimilation (Pn), Gs, Ci, and transpiration rate (Tr) were considerably reduced in pepper plants by enhancing the V (20, 30, 40, and 50 mg) stress level (Figure 5)
Summary
Heavy metal pollution in agricultural soil has received worldwide attention in recent years due to its detrimental impacts on environmental health, crop quality, and food security [1]. Vanadium (V) is a widely dispersed and naturally occurring trace metal present in the atmosphere and soil rhizosphere. V occurs naturally in soils in various mineral forms, including vanadinite, chileite, patronite, and carnotite, with varying distribution ranges (3–310 mg kg−1 ) [2]. Out of total V, very minute amounts (less than 1%) are leachable as well as extractable with water with limited mobility in soil [3,4]. Previous studies suggest that V was reported to be a very harmful element for plants [5], which significantly affects growth and development of crops
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