Abstract
Seeds, young plants and adult plants of the perennial Mediterranean leguminous shrub Dorycnium pentaphyllum Scop. were exposed to Cd (1–100 μM) or Zn (10–10,000 μM) on nutrient solution. This species is resistant to Cd and Zn at different phenological stages. The lowest doses of Zn and Cd improved seed germination and young seedling growth, while only the highest doses of both heavy metals inhibited germination and decreased growth. High doses of Cd reduced seed imbibition and young seedling water content, while Zn did not. Osmotic adjustment was more efficient in Zn-treated young plants than in Cd-treated ones, while chlorophyll concentrations decreased in the former but not in the latter. Those differences were not observed anymore in adult plants. Exclusion processes were more efficient at the adult stage than at the young seedling stage and were more marked in response to Zn than to Cd. It is concluded that D. pentaphyllum could be used for phytostabilization of heavy metal-contaminated areas. The physiological strategies of tolerance, however, differ according to the age of the plants and the nature of the metal.
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Abbreviations
- BL:
-
Basal level
- Chl:
-
Chlorophyll
- EDDHA:
-
Ethylenediamine-di(o-hydroxy)-phenylacetic acid
- Exp:
-
Experiment
- L i :
-
Level of imbibition
- NFT:
-
Nutrient film technique
- PAR:
-
Photosynthetically active radiation
- PFD:
-
Photon flux density
- Ψ s :
-
Osmotic potential
- Ψ w :
-
Water potential
- UL:
-
Upper level
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS-Belgium, convention n° 2.4565.02). The authors are also very grateful to Mrs Anne Iserentant for her precious help in cadmium quantification, to Mrs Brigitte Van Pee and Mr. Baudouin Capelle for germination test and plant culture and to Mr Antonio Robledo Miras for his help in collecting the seeds.
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Lefèvre, I., Marchal, G., Corréal, E. et al. Variation in response to heavy metals during vegetative growth in Dorycnium pentaphyllum Scop.. Plant Growth Regul 59, 1–11 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-009-9382-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-009-9382-z