Amelioration of Mercury Stress using Mercury Tolerant Bacterium by Studying Growth, Antioxidant Enzyme Activities, Lipid Peroxidation and Proline Content in Pigeon Pea

Heavy metal pollution of agricultural soils is a widespread environmental threat. Heavy metals induce deleterious effects on plants. These effects can be minimized by the application of PGPB on plants under stress. The main objective of this study is to assess the effect of PGPB inoculants of Brevundimonas sp. of bacterium on growth and antioxidant enzyme activities of pigeon pea seedlings grown under high mercury concentrations. The plant antioxidant response has been analyzed by quantifying the catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR) enzyme activity in pigeon pea seedlings exposed to mercury and different PGPB treatments. Our data indicated that the bacteria acted as a shield and protect the Cajanus plants from mercury toxicity and hence extent of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes (CAT, POX and SOD) were determined for all three treatments i.e., control (C), untreated (mercury exposed) and treated (bacteria + mercury). The antioxidant enzyme activities, MDA content and proline content were increased in the mercury exposed pigeon pea and a parallel reduction was observed in Brevundimonas bacterium treated pigeon pea seedlings under mercury stress indicate that these plants faced less stress in presence of Brevundimonas bacterium.

S. Padmavathi*1 and Ch. S. Anuradha2 Click here to download file

Research Article | Published online : 29-Nov-2022