Fertigation of calcium nitrate [Ca(NO3)2] confers metal tolerance in two chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars

• Published in: Arabian journal of geosciences 2022, Vol.15 (11), Article 1078
• Main Authors: Parveen, Abida, Hussain, Iqbal, Perveen, Shagufta, Ashraf, Muhammad Arslan, Rasheed, Rizwan, Hussain, Saddam, Hussain, Sajjad, Thind, Sumaira, Ali, Arshad, Zahid Ullah, Mahmood, Qaisar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Ascorbic acid; Biological stress; Biomass; Brittleness; Cadmium; Calcium; Calcium nitrate; Catalase; Chickpeas; Contamination; Cultivars; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth science; Earth Sciences; Enzymes; Fertigation; Flavonoids; Heavy metals; Hydrogen peroxide; Industrialization; L-Ascorbate peroxidase; Legumes; Metabolites; Organelles; Original Paper; Oxidative stress; Peroxidase; Phenols; Photosynthesis; Photosynthetic pigments; Pigments; Plant growth; Plants; Proline; Secondary metabolites; Soil; Soil contamination; Soil pollution; Toxicity
• ISSN: 1866-7511; 1866-7538
• DOI: 10.1007/s12517-022-09638-7

Soil contamination with cadmium (Cd) is problem nowadays due to industrialization. A pot experiment was conducted to assess the exogenous effect of calcium nitrate (CaNO 3 ) on morphological traits, photosynthetic efficiency, oxidative stress indicators, secondary metabolites and enzymatic antioxidative capacity in two chickpea (chickpea-brittle and chickpea-2008) cultivars under Cd stress (0 and 200 μM). Results revealed that the Cd stress caused a significant ( p < 0.05) reduction in biomass production, photosynthetic pigments, flavonoids and phenolics whereas increase in the activities of various antioxidative enzymes like superoxidase dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) as well as malondialdehyde (MDA) and H 2 O 2 content. Cd-administered plants accumulated proline and total soluble proteins in substantial amount. However, results also show that chickpea-brittle showed more tolerance to the chickpea-2008 under the same levels of Cd in the soil. The leaves may be treated with Ca(NO 3 ) 2 to reduce toxic effects of Cd, which enhances biomass through increased plant growth along elevated pigments of photosynthetic, activities of antioxidant enzymes and levels of secondary metabolites, in comparison to untreated plants. Additionally, fortifying the Ca(NO 3 ) 2 application also decreases the levels of oxidative damaged to membrane-bounded organelles in the plants. Our findings suggested that Ca(NO 3 ) 2 spray can mitigate Cd toxicity and leads to increased chickpea growth and yield under Cd-contaminated conditions depicting by decreasing oxidative stress within cell. It was concluded that foliar application of Ca(NO 3 ) 2 may alleviate toxic effects of Cd in studied chickpea cultivars through enhanced plant growth, high content of photosynthetic pigments and low oxidative stress under Cd treatments. Graphical abstract