Protective effect of jasmonic acid and potassium against cadmium stress in peas (Pisum sativum L.)

Tahira Abbas; Rong Fan; Sajjad Hussain; Abdul Sattar; Samina Khalid; Madiha Butt; Umbreen Shahzad; Hafiz Muhammad Atif; Momal Batool; Sami Ullah; Yunzhou Li; Abdulrahman Al-Hashimi; Mohamed S Elshikh; Rashid Al-Yahyai

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.12.051

Protective effect of jasmonic acid and potassium against cadmium stress in peas (Pisum sativum L.)

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2022 Apr;29(4):2626-2633. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.12.051. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Bahadur Sub campus Layyah, Pakistan.
² College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.
³ Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Horticulture, MNS University of Agriculture Multan Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou, China.
⁸ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.
¹⁰ Department of Crop Science, University of Reading, UK.

Abstract

A combination of mineral nutrients and plant growth regulators should be assessed to improve crop performance under various abiotic stresses. There is a need to include plant growth regulators in fertilization regime of various crops along with essential mineral nutrients, especially when they are irrigated with polluted water with higher levels of heavy metals. The performance of pea was evaluated under cadmium (Cd) stress coupled with potassium (K) and jasmonic acid (JA) supplementation. The Cd stress (50 μM) was applied to soil (sandy loam) grown pea plants as basal dose after a month of sowing. The control and stressed plants were then supplemented with K (5 M), JA (0.5 mM) and their collective application along with control as distilled water. Cd stress showed a marked reduction in growth pattern, however, the collective supplementation sufficiently improved the growth pattern of stressed peas plants as evidenced by improvement in shoot length (cm), root length (cm), number of leaves per plant, leaf area (cm²), plant fresh and dry weight (gm). Potassium application under Cd stress significantly enhanced internodal distance (cm) while the number of seeds per pod and relative water contents remained nonsignificant. The applied treatment (JA + K) under Cd stress prominently improved enzymatic activities, which were measured as nitrate reductase activity (NRA), nitrite reductase activity (NiRA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT). Cd stress impacted the biochemical profile by enhancing antioxidant capacity (AC), antioxidant activity (AA), total phenols (TP), while reducing total soluble protein (TSP), chlorophyll 'a', chlorophyll 'b' and carotenoids. The combined application of JA and K under Cd stress enhanced AC, AA, TP, Chl a and b, TSP and carotenoids. The results indicate that foliar application of JA and K efficiently negated the harmful effects of Cd stress on peas.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity; Carotenoids; Heavy metal stress; Legumes; Nitrogen fixation.