Chromium uptake and its impact on antioxidant level, photosynthetic machinery, and related gene expression in Brassica napus cultivars

Iram Batool; Ahsan Ayyaz; Kangni Zhang; Fakhir Hannan; Yongqi Sun; Tongjun Qin; Habib Ur Rehman Athar; Muhammad Shahbaz Naeem; Weijun Zhou; Muhammad Ahsan Farooq

doi:10.1007/s11356-024-35175-9

Chromium uptake and its impact on antioxidant level, photosynthetic machinery, and related gene expression in Brassica napus cultivars

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Oct 1. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-35175-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Crop Science, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Spectroscopy Sensing, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
² Institute of Botany, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 40162, Pakistan.
³ Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁴ National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Ecological Treatment Technology for Urban Water Pollution, College of Life and Environmental Science, Wenzhou University, Zhong-Xin Street, Wenzhou, 325035, China. ahsanfarooq143@yahoo.com.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39349895
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-35175-9

Abstract

The development of heavy metals, particularly chromium (Cr)-tolerant crop cultivars, is hampered due to lack of understanding of the mechanisms behind Cr stress tolerance. In this study, two Brassica napus cultivars, ZS758 and ZD622, were compared for Cr stress resistance by using the chlorophyll a fluorescence technique and biochemical characteristics. In both cultivars, Cr stress dramatically decreased PSII and PSI efficiency, biomass accumulation, and antioxidant enzyme levels. Although, cultivar ZS758 showed reduction in oxidative stress by decreasing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in terms of reduced H₂O₂ and MDA content and increased enzymatic activities of key antioxidants enzymes including SOD, APX, CAT, and POD activities that play a crucial role in the regulation of numerous transcriptional pathways involved in oxidative stress responses. Higher non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and QY were found in tolerant ZS758 cultivar under Cr stress, indicating that tolerant cultivar had a greater capacity to preserve PSII activity under Cr stress by enhancing heat dissipation as a photo-protective component of NPQ. Lower PSI activity and electron transfer from PSII were confirmed by lower PSI efficiency and higher donor end limitation of PSI in both rapeseed cultivars. The Cr concentration was greater in the ZD622 as compared to ZS758, which affected the mineral nutrients profile and damaged the cellular ultrastructure and related gene expression levels. However, current study suggest that cultivar ZS758 is more resistant to Cr stress than ZD622 due to improved metabolism and structural integrity and Cr stress tolerance that is linked with the increased PSII activity, NPQ, and antioxidant potential; these physiological characteristics can be exploited to select cultivars for Cr stress tolerance.

Keywords: Chlorophyll; Chlorophyll fluorescence; Heavy metal; Reactive oxygen species; Ultrastructure.

Abstract

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