To decrease environmental and human health risks associated with crop and soil contamination, alternative solutions are still needed. The information on strigolactones (SLs)-mediated elicitation of abiotic stress signaling and triggering physiological alterations is scarce in the plant. To unravel the same, soybean plants were subjected to cadmium (Cd) stress (20 mg kg-1), presence or absence of foliar applied SL (GR24) at the concentration of 10 μM. Excess Cd accumulation causes reduced growth (-52% shoot and +24% root), yield (-35%), physio-biochemical markers, organic acid production, and genes encoding heavy metal resilience in soybean. SL exogenous application decreased the growth and yield suppression (-12%), shielded chlorophyll (+3%), and prominently declined Cd-induced oxidative stress biomarkers accumulation in soybean. Moreover, SL effectively alleviates Cd-induced suppression in organic acids, superoxide dismutase (+73%), catalase activities (+117%), and increments ascorbate glutathione (ASA-GSH) cycle activities comprising ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, dehydroascorbate reductase, and monodehydroascorbate reductase. SL-mediated upregulation of genes encoding heavy metals tolerance and glyoxalase defense system in Cd stressed plants. The results of this work point out that SL could be a promising player in mitigating Cd-induced injuries effectively in soybean. It acts through the antioxidant system modulation for redox homeostasis, shielding chloroplasts, enhancing photosynthetic apparatus, and elevating organic acid production in soybean plants.
Keywords: Cd stress; GR24; Glyoxalase system; Heavy metal ATPase; Organic acids; Oxidative stress markers.
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