Loading...

 

What is it about?

Heavy metal pollution in agricultural soils has become an important issue due to the variety of sources, their persistence in the environment, and their ability to accumulate throughout the food chain. Lead is one of the heavy metals that affects many physiological, morphological and biochemical parameters of plants and has been reported to induce growth disorders, affecting normal root development and causing growth retardation, impaired photosynthesis, decreased root and stem biomass and altered mineral nutrition and enzyme activity.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Consequently, this paper presents the lead-induced effects on morphology, physiology and biochemistry of perennial wall-rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) grown under greenhouse conditions in Kekkila peat substrate contaminated with 20, 50 and 100 mg kg‑1 Pb(II). The effects induced by Pb(II) in the chosen concentration range, were assessed by measuring multiple parameters, such as: leaf area, leaf number, dry biomass, photosynthetic pigments content, protein, total lipids content, ascorbic acid, and others. Analysis of the experimental data from a statistical point of view showed that Pb(II) in the set concentration range had no significant influence on leaf area, leaf number, dry biomass, chlorophyll content, protein or dietetic fibres contents in leaves of plants grown at 100 mg kg‑1 soil lead concentration and control sample.

Perspectives

Sorry, your browser does not support inline SVG.

For example, the protein level detected in plants grown at 100 mg kg‑1 Pb(II) was 7.70 g 100 g‑1 d.w. and in control was 7.72 g 100 g‑1 d.w. The dietetic fibres content was 17.46 g 100 g‑1 d.w. in the control sample and 17.47 g 100 g‑1 d.w. at 100 mg kg‑1 Pb(II). Significant differences were found in total lipid content, which decreased from 3.44 to 3.32 g 100 g‑1 d.w. Overall, the results of this study showed that perennial wall-rocket has a high tolerance to Pb(II), but special attention should be paid to the accumulation of this metal in the leaves, to avoid its consumption by people.

habilitated doctor, chemist Monica BUTNARIU
University of Life Sciences "King Mihai I" from Timisoara

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Assessment of perennial wall-rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) growth under Pb(II) stress – preliminary studies, Acta Horticulturae, January 2025, International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS),
DOI: 10.17660/actahortic.2025.1416.58.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page