Study of effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza (Glomus intraradices) fungus on wheat under nickel stress

A. Heydarian¹, H.R. Tohidi Moghadam¹, T.W. Donath² and M. Sohrabi²*

¹Islamic Azad University Varamin- Pishva Branch, Department of Agronomy, IR 33817-74895, Varamin, Iran
²Kiel University, Department of Landscape Ecology, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Olshausenstr. 75, DE24118 Kiel, Germany
*Correspondence: msohrabi@ecology.uni-kiel.de

Abstract:

In many regions of the world soils are contaminated with heavy metals and therefore restricted in their use. For instance, the absorption of nickel (Ni) in the tissue of plants increase the plant’s metabolism and cause physiological disorders or even death. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are known to enhance the tolerance of host plants to abiotic and biotic stress. Thus, we investigated the potential of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomus intraradices to mitigate deleterious effects of Ni in wheat. The experiment was conducted using four levels of Ni (0, 60, 120 and 180 mg per kg of soil) and two levels of mycorrhizal fungi application (with and without Glomus intraradices). Nickel stress significantly decreased seed number per spike, thousand-seed weight, seed yield per plant, concentration of chlorophyll a and b. At the same time, we found increased catalase (CAT) enzyme activity and dityrosine (DT) treatments. Mycorrhizal fungi application attenuated Ni effects, i.e. fungal presence increased seed number per spike, thousand-seed weight, chlorophyll a and b. Furthermore mycorrhizal fungi application reduce CAT enzyme activity and DT. In general, our results suggest that mycorrhizal fungi application reduces harmful effects of Ni stress in wheat.

Key words:

Investigating the probable consequences of super absorbent polymer and mycorrhizal fungi to reduce detrimental effects of lead on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

H.R. Tohidi Moghadam¹, T. W. Donath², F. Ghooshchi¹ and M. Sohrabi²*

¹Department of Agronomy, Varamin-Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran
²Department of Landscape Ecology, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Olshausenstr. 75, DE24118 Kiel, Germany
*Correspondence: msohrabi@ecology.uni-kiel.de

Abstract:

In many parts of the world, agricultural use of soils is restricted due to heavy metal contamination. Absorption of heavy metals, such as (Pb), in the tissue of plants increases the plant’s metabolism and causes physiological disorders or even death. In order to study the potential of super absorbent polymers (SAP) and mycorrhiza fungi application to mitigate adverse effects of lead (Pb) on wheat, a greenhouse experiment was conducted. The experiment was setup as a completely randomized design, with two treatments arranged in a factorial scheme with three levels of lead (0, 100 and 200 mg per kg soil) and four levels of SAP and mycorrhiza fungi application (without SAP and mycorrhiza fungi application, SAP application alone, mycorrhiza fungi application alone, SAP and mycorrhiza fungi application combined). The results showed that Pb significantly affected all parameters measured of wheat. The Pb-contamination caused a significantly decreasing in plant height, total dry weight per plant and total chlorophyll contents. And also, the results indicated that the combined use of superabsorbent and mycorrhiza reduced the amount of superoxide dismutase enzyme. As well as, our results show that the application of super absorbent polymer and mycorrhizal fungi seems to be a promising path to reduce detrimental effects of heavy metal pollution of agricultural soils on plant performance.

Key words:

enzymes superoxide dismutase, lead, mycorrhizal fungi, super absorbent polymer, wheat