Cadmium effect on growth, ammonium assimilation, and amino acids levels in roots of Arabidopsis thaliana

• Published in: Euro-Mediterranean journal for environmental integration 2023-03, Vol.8 (1), p.161-165
• Main Authors: Maaroufi Dguimi, Houda, Nasraoui Hajjaji, Afef, Omari Alzahrani, Fatima
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino acids; Ammonium; Aquatic Pollution; Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis thaliana; Asparagine; Assimilation; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Cadmium; Conference Paper; Dehydrogenases; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Management; Environmental Science and Engineering; Exposure; Flowers & plants; Gels; Glutamate dehydrogenase; Glutamate-ammonia ligase; Glutamine; Isoforms; Plant growth; Polyacrylamide; Proteins; Roots; Seedlings; Tomatoes; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 2365-6433; 2365-7448
• DOI: 10.1007/s41207-023-00349-3

The effect of cadmium (Cd) on roots of Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) was investigated to get further insight into the mechanisms of plant adaptation to Cd. Thirty-day-old Arabidopsis seedlings were exposed to 20 µM CdCl 2 for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 days. Root growth decreased by about 75% under Cd stress after 7 days of Cd exposure. Cd treatment reduced root soluble protein by 40% from the first day of exposure, and induced a 55% increase in root ammonium and a 17% increase in the contents of free amino acids, such as glutamine (Gln) and asparagine (Asn). The higher free amino acid level could be due to an increase in protease activity. Furthermore, Cd stress increased glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity by 49%, whereas glutamine synthetase (GS) activity decreased. GDH activity on polyacrylamide gels showed that Cd induced both α- and β-enriched isoforms. Therefore, this study showed that the ammonium assimilation process plays an important role in the response of plants to Cd stress.