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Defense responses of soybean roots during exposure to cadmium, excess of nitrogen supply and combinations of these stressors

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Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is a serious environmental problem in agricultural soils since the uptake of heavy metals by plants represents an entry point into the food chain and is influenced by the form and amount of nitrogen (N) fertilization. Here we studied the defense responses in soybean roots exposed to ions of cadmium (applied as 50 mg l−1 Cd2+) when combined with an excessive dose of N in form of NH4NO3. Our data indicate that despite of stunted root growth, several stress symptoms typically observed upon cadmium treatment, e.g. peroxidation of lipid membranes or activation of chitinase isoforms, become suppressed at highly excessive N. At the same time, other defense mechanisms such as catalases and proline accumulation were elevated. Most importantly, the interplay of ongoing responses resulted in a decreased uptake of the metal into the root tissue. This report points to the complexity of plant defense responses under conditions of heavy metal pollution combined with intensive fertilization in agriculture.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant from the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA No. 2/0062/11. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the stay of YG at IPGB SAS provided by Slovak Academic Information Agency SAIA, n.o., and for VM provided by the Operational Programme Research and Development for the project: “Implementation of the research of plant genetic resources and its maintaining in the sustainable management of Slovak republic” (ITMS: 26220220097), co-financed from the resources of the European Union Fund for Regional Development. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the comments and suggestions that helped to improve the earlier versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Institute of Biology of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Volodymyrska Street 64, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine

    Yevheniia Konotop & Natalia Taran

  2. Department of Botany and Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, The Constantine Philosopher University, Nábrežie mládeže 91, 949 74, Nitra, Slovak Republic

    Patrik Mészáros & Beáta Piršelová

  3. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Konrad-Lorenz Str. 24, 3430, Tulln, Austria

    Nadine Spieß

  4. Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 39A, 950 07, Nitra, Slovak Republic

    Veronika Mistríková, Jana Libantová, Jana Moravčíková & Ildikó Matušíková

  5. Plant Production Research Centre Piešťany, Bratislavská cesta 122, 921 68, Piešťany, Slovak Republic

    Pavol Hauptvogel

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  1. Yevheniia Konotop
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Correspondence to Ildikó Matušíková.

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Konotop, Y., Mészáros, P., Spieß, N. et al. Defense responses of soybean roots during exposure to cadmium, excess of nitrogen supply and combinations of these stressors. Mol Biol Rep 39, 10077–10087 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-1881-8

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