Lead-Resistant Morganella morganii Rhizobacteria Reduced Lead Toxicity in Arabidopsis thaliana by Improving Growth, Physiology, and Antioxidant Activities

Tahir Naqqash, Aeman Aziz, Muhammad Babar, Syed Bilal Hussain, Ghulam Haider, Muhammad Shahid, Muther Mansoor Qaisrani, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Kashif Hanif, Roberto Mancinelli and Emanuele Radicetti
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Tahir Naqqash: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Aeman Aziz: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Muhammad Babar: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Syed Bilal Hussain: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Ghulam Haider: Department of Plant Biotechnology, Atta ur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences, National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Muhammad Shahid: Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Muther Mansoor Qaisrani: Department of Bioinformatics, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan
Muhammad Arshad: Department of Biotechnology, University of Okara, Okara 56300, Pakistan
Muhammad Kashif Hanif: Department of Biological Sciences, Sargodha Campus, University of Lahore, 89/2-A ZafarUllah Rd, Shamsheer Town, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan
Roberto Mancinelli: Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, Via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Emanuele Radicetti: Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences (DOCPAS), University of Ferrara, Via Luigi Borsari 46, 44121 Ferrara, Italy

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Biological remediation serves as a powerful technique for addressing heavy metals toxicity in metals-contaminated soils. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of lead (Pb)-resistant rhizobacterial strains on growth, photosynthetic traits, and antioxidant activities of the Arabidopsis plant under lead toxicity in pot conditions. Two pre-isolated and pre-characterized Pb-resistant Morganella morganii (ABT3) and Morganella morganii (ABT9) strains were used for inoculating Arabidopsis plants grown under varying Pb concentrations (1.5 mM and 2.5 mM) using PbNO 3 as the lead source. The treatments were set up in a completely randomized design with four replications. Data on growth parameters, physiological characteristics, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant activities were recorded at harvesting. It was observed that Pb contamination caused a significant reduction in Arabidopsis growth, chlorophyll content and quantum yield at both lead concentrations. The Pb concentration of 2.5 mM, showed a substantial decrease in all parameters, including shoot fresh weight (58.72%), shoot dry weight (59.31%), root fresh weight (67.31%), root dry weight (67.28%), chlorophyll content (48.69%), quantum yield (62.36%), catalase activity (65.30%), superoxide dismutase (60.88%), and peroxidase activity (60.54%) while increasing lipid peroxidation (113.8%). However, the inoculation with Pb-resistant M. morganii strains (ABT3 and ABT9) improved plant growth, photosynthesis and antioxidant activities, while reduced the malondialdehyde content of Arabidopsis compared to control plants without inoculation. The M. morganii strain ABT9 showed a maximum increase in the shoot fresh weight (67.18%), shoot dry weight (67.96%), root fresh weight (94.04%), root dry weight (93.92%), shoot length (148.88%), root length (123.33%), chlorophyll content (52.53%), quantum yield (58.57%), catalase activity (39.46%), superoxide dismutase (21.84%), and peroxidase activity (22.34%) while decreasing lipid peroxidation (35.28%). PCA analysis further showed that all nine treatments scattered differently across the PC1 and PC2, having 81.4% and 17.0% data variance, respectively, indicating the efficiency of Pb-resistant strains. The heatmap further validated that the introduction of Pb-resistant strains positively correlated with the growth parameters, quantum yield, chlorophyll content and antioxidant activities of Arabidopsis seedlings. Both Pb-resistant strains improved Arabidopsis plant growth and photosynthetic efficiency under lead stress conditions. Thus, both Morganella morganii ABT3 and Morganella morganii ABT9 strains can be considered as bio-fertilizer for reducing lead toxicity thereby improving plant growth and physiology in metal-contaminated agricultural soils.

Keywords: lead; phytoremediation; antioxidant enzymatic activity; Arabidopsis; plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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