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Journal of Stress Physiology & Biochemistry, Vol. 8 No. 4 2012, pp. 78-89 ISSN 1997-0838 Original Text Copyright © 2012 by Moradkhani, Khavari Nejad, Dilmaghani, Chaparzadeh
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effect of salicylic acid treatment on cadmium toxicity and leaf lipid composition in sunflower
Sakineh Moradkhani1*, Ramazan Ali Khavari Nejad1, Kamaladdin Dilmaghani2 and Nader Chaparzadeh3
1 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Plant Biology, Marand Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
3 Department of Plant Biology, Azerbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem, Tabriz, Iran
Tel: +98-9143630910. *E-Mail: Moradkhani544@Yahoo.com
Received July 14, 2012
The ameliorative effect of salicylic acid (SA) on cadmium (Cd) toxicity in sunflower plants was studied by investigating plant growth and fatty acid composition.
Sunflower plants in two leaves stage were exposed to CdCl2 treatment (0, 50,100,150 and 200 ^M) and then were treated with salicylic acid (0, 250 and 500 ^M) as foliage spraying.
One week after the last salicylic acid treatment,plants were harvested and growth parameters were measured . Oil of leaf was extracted in a Soxhlet system and fatty acid composition were measured by gas chromatography(GC). Statistical analyses showed excess Cd reduced growth parameters (fresh weight and length of stems and roots, fresh weight and number of leaves)and SA increased them compared with the control. Maximum reduction in these parameters was at 200 ^mol Cd and 0^mol of SA. Cd caused a shift in fatty acids composition, resulting in a lower degree of their unsaturation and an increase in saturated fatty acids in sunflower leaves,whereas SA improved them. SA, particularly increased the percentage of linolenic acid and lowered that of palmitic acid by the same proportion.
These results suggest membrane integrity due to lipids est that SA could be used as a potential growth regulator and a stabilizer of protection of cadmium-induced oxidative stress to improve plant resistance to Cd stress.
Key words: Cadmium toxicity/ Fatty acid /Growth parameters/ Helianthus annuusL./Salicylic acid
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effect of salicylic acid treatment on cadmium toxicity and leaf lipid composition in sunflower
Sakineh Moradkhani1*, Ramazan Ali Khavari Nejad1, Kamaladdin Dilmaghani2 and Nader Chaparzadeh3
1 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran , Iran
2 Department of Plant Biology, Marand Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
3 Department of Plant Biology, Azerbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem, Tabriz, Iran
Tel: +98-9143630910. *E-Mail: Moradkhani544@Yahoo.com
Received July 14, 2012
The ameliorative effect of salicylic acid (SA) on cadmium (Cd) toxicity in sunflower plants was studied by investigating plant growth and fatty acid composition.
Sunflower plants in two leaves stage were exposed to CdCl2 treatment (0, 50,100,150 and 200 ^M) and then were treated with salicylic acid (0, 250 and 500 ^M) as foliage spraying.
One week after the last salicylic acid treatment,plants were harvested and growth parameters were measured . Oil of leaf was extracted in a Soxhlet system and fatty acid composition were
measured by gas chromatography(GC). Statistical analyses showed excess Cd reduced growth parameters (fresh weight and length of stems and roots, fresh weight and number of leaves)and SA increased them compared with the control. Maximum reduction in these parameters was at 200 ^mol Cd and 0^mol of SA. Cd caused a shift in fatty acids composition, resulting in a lower degree of their unsaturation and an increase in saturated fatty acids in sunflower leaves,whereas SA improved them. SA, particularly increased the percentage of linolenic acid and lowered that of palmitic acid by the same proportion.
These results suggest membrane integrity due to lipids est that SA could be used as a potential growth regulator and a stabilizer of protection of cadmium-induced oxidative stress to improve plant resistance to Cd stress.
Key words: Cadmium toxicity/ Fatty acid /Growth parameters/Helianthus annuusL./Salicylic acid
Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic metals in fertilizers, sewage sludge, manure and lime (Lopez-
the environment that is toxic to many plant species Millan et al., 2009).
at bw concentrations (Schutzendubel and polle, The high mobility of this metal in soil-plant
2002). Cadmium accumulation in soils may system allows its easy entry into the food network,
originate from different sources, including air which may inciting any toxic effects on plants,
pollutants and soil application of commercial animals and humans (Nedjimi and Daoud, 2009).
Cadmium can cause many toxic symptoms in plants, such as the inhibition respiratory, photosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism , activation or inhibition of enzymes, disturbances in plant-water relationships and the ion metabolism, resulting in low biomass accumulation and growth inhibition (Yannarelli et al., 2007; Pal et al., 2006). At cellular level, Cd toxicity lead to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants which are highly reactive and toxic and cause damage to membrane integrity due to lipid peroxidation, which may result in generation of highly cytotoxic compounds and reduction of plant development (Gill and Tuteja, 2010).
Plant defense against Cd includes two strategies: (1) detoxification of Cd and (2) coping with oxidative stress induced by Cd (Vassilev et al., 2002).
Varied detoxification processes in plant cells are activated during exposure to Cd such as complexing of the metal by phytochelatins and metallothioneins, compartmentalization in vacuoles, immobilization at the level of cell wall, exclusion through action of plasma membrane and synthesis of stress proteins(Nikolic et al., 2008; Wojcik and Tukiendorf , 2004).
One of mechanisms that plants have developed to cope with damages caused by cadmium are related with some stress signaling molecules, such as salicylic acid, jasmonic acid and ethylene(Maksymiec et al., 2007). All these compounds were induced by Cd treatment, which suggest that they are involved in cell response to Cd toxicity. (Popova et al., 2008). Salicylic acid (SA) is a simple phenolic compound involved in the regulation of many processes and physiological functions in plant growth and development, including stomatal movement, seed germination,
ion absorption, sex polarization and in eliciting biotic and abiotic stress signaling (Krantev et al., 2006). Protective action of SA includes the development of anti stress programs and acceleration of growth processes recovery after the removal of stress factors. (Misra and Saxena, 2009).The protective function of SA mainly includes the regulation of ROS and antioxidants, induction of gene expression (Shah, 2003). Apparently, SA has broad but divergent effects on stress acclimation and damage development of plants. Thus, SA may act directly as an antioxidant to scavenge the reactive oxygen species and indirectly modulate redox balance through activation of antioxidant responses (Popova et al., 2008).
It has been shown that SA provides protection in pea plants (Pena et al., 2006), barley seedlings (Metwally et al., 2003), soybean seedlings (Drazic and Mihailovic, 2005), hemp plants (Shi et al., 2009) against Cd stress and it induces adaptive response to copper stress in sunflower (El-Tayeb et al., 2006) or modulates plant responses to salt and osmotic stresses in Maize plants (Khodary, 2004), drought and herbicides (Popova et al., 2008).
The sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is one of the four most important oil crops globally and is grown on over 21 million hectares worldwide. (Skoric et al., 2007). The high levels of unsaturated fatty acids with low saturated fat levels in vegetable oils such as sunflower oil have become recognized as good nutritional characteristics for health (Lacombe and Bervill, 2001).
Although sunflower is usually regarded as a highly tolerant crop, which can cope with elevated heavy metal concentrations in soil, impairment of growth at initial stages of plant development may result in a poor crop establishment (Groppa et al., 2008). Previous works have demonstrated that
abiotic stresses like metals, UV-B and salt caused variations in the antioxidant defense system and generated oxidative damage in sunflower plants(Pena et al., 2006). However, the role of exogenously applied SA under Cd stress on fatty acids profile in sunflower leaves is not still clear and needs further investigations. Based on the above studies, our research has shown the influence of SA on Cd-induced changes of growth and fatty acid composition in sunflower leaves.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Homogenous seeds of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) were obtained from the Agricultural Research Center, Khoy, Iran. Seeds were sterilized with sodium hypochlorite solution (1%) for 15 minutes, washed thoroughly with distilled water before use. Six seeds were sown and were cultivated in each pot and after emergence; four homogenous seedlings were left in each. To maintain humidity, 100 ml of distilled water was used to each pot every day and 100 ml of Hoagland solution was applied to each pot every week.
Plants were placed in greenhouse conditions under 24.5°C and 33.5 °C, respectively, minimum and maximum temperatures, light intensity 13000 luxs provided by fluorescent lamps on top of canopy and 16:8 (light: dark) photoperiod. Two leaves stage plant were exposed to CdCl2
treatment.CdCl2 was added to each pot with
various concentrations (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 ^M) every week. One week after Cd treatment ended,SA (mixed with tween- 20 (a surfactant and spreading agent) ) with three concentrations (0, 250 and 500 ^M) was sprayed on plant leaves with a sprayer (10 ml per plant) every week. Four replicates were performed for each treatment.
Plant growth analysis
One week after the last salicylic acid treatment, the plants were harvested and Leaves, stems and roots were separated. Number of leaves was counted per plant. Length of stems and roots of each plant were measured. Fresh weight of leaves, stems and roots in treated and control plants was estimated (g per plant).
Oil extraction
The leaves were dried at 40 EC for 4 h, using a ventilated oven, to reduce moisture content to 5%. Then dried leaves were crushed with a mortar. One gram of leaf tissue was used to oil extract with petroleum ether for 6 h in a Soxhlet system (B.chi Universal Extraction System B-811, Germany) according to the AOCS method (AOCS, 1993). The oil extract was evaporated by distillation at reduced pressure in a rotary evaporator at 40 EC until the solvent was totally removed.
Analysis of fatty acids
The oil extracted with hexane/methanol (3:2, v/v) from the test sample was converted to its fatty acid methyl esters as described by Marquard (1987). The methyl esters of the fatty acids (0.1 ці) were analyzed in a Hewlett-Packard 5890B series gas chromatograph (Perkin Elmer Auto System XL, USA) equipped with a flame ionizing detector (FID), and a fused silica capillary column (MNFFAP (50 m x 0.32 mm i.d.; film thickness = 0.25 urn)).
It was operated under the following conditions: oven temperature program, 120 EC for 1 min, raised to 250 EC at a rate of 6 EC/min and then kept at 250 EC for 15min; injector and detector temperatures were 250 EC and 260 EC, respectively, carrier gas, helium, at flow rate of 40 ml/min; split ratio, 1/20 ml/min. Peak identification was performed by comparing the relative retention
times with those of a commercial standard mixture of fatty acid methyl esters. The contents of palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2) acids and linolenic (C18:3) acids were determined by computing integrator on a percentage basis.
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis was carried out by two-way ANOVA using SPSS, version 18 software. When the effect was significant,means of the studied parameters were compared by Duncan's test at P < 0.001 , P < 0.01 and P < 0.05 levels.
RESULTS Plant growth
Fresh weights of leaves, stems and roots in sunflower were decreased significantly under the influence of Cd (66.5 % ,41.5 % and 78.6 % at 200 nmol and 0nmol of SA,respectively, compared with the control plants)(Table 1). Contrary, treatment with 500 nmol SA in plants exposed to Cd, increased leaf, stem and root fresh weights (Figure1 A,B,C).
Cd in concentrations applied here lead to significant reductions of stem and root length(13.33%, 33.91 % at 200 nmol Cd,
respectively, compared with the control plants) (Table1). However, SA with 500 nmol enhanced stem and root elongation in plants submitted or not to Cd (Figure 2 A,B).
Leaf number decreased proportionally with increasing Cd concentration, and the reduction in the values of this parameter under 200 nmol of Cd and 0nmol of SA was 22.53% compared with the control plants (Figure 3). SA treatment decreased Cd toxicity on leaf number (Table1).
Fatty acid composition
Results shown in Table 2 are expressed as a percentage of total leaf fatty acids. Linolenic (0.55%),linoleic (51.2%),oleic(25.6%), stearic (4.5%) and palmitic (13.2%) acids were the major fatty acids(Figure 4).The main difference in the fatty acid composition of sunflower leaves between the control and contaminated plants was a decrease in the percentage of tri-unsaturated fatty acid ; linolenic acid (62.3%) and its precursors , oleic acid (72.2%) under 150 nmol Cd and linoleic acid (2.5%) under 200 nmol Cd as compared with control plants . An increase in the percentage of saturated fatty acids including stearic acid (58.3%) and palmitic acid (67%) under 200 nmol Cd was observed as compared with control plants . A decrease of 2.5, 1.1 and 3.5-fold was noted , respectively, for linolenic acid (C18:3), linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1). An increase of 2.4 and 1.6- fold was noted , respectively, for stearic acid (C18:0) and palmitic acid (C16:0) (Table 2).
Treatment with SA (250 nmol) with or without Cd treatment, significantly increased the amount of linoleic acid (24.7%) and linolenic acid (45.2%) and decreased that of stearic acid (8.7%). SA treatment at 500 nmol enhanced the content of oleic acid (9.3%) and decreased that of palmitic acid (48.6%) in leaves with or without Cd treatment (Table 2). Infact, Cd induced a decrease in total content of unsaturated fatty acids and an increase in saturated fatty acids in leaves of sunflower plants. The presence of an antioxidant such as SA with or without Cd treatment significantly increased the total content of unsaturation fatty acids and decreased the amount of saturated fatty acids .
Table1. Effects of Cd and SA on growth parameters of sunflower plants
SA treatments Cd concentration
0 nM 50 nM 100 nM 150 nM 200 nM
Stem length(cm)
0 nM 43.07 41.26 39.07 38.52 37.33
250 nM 45.21 42.36 40.99 39.28 38.07
500 nM 46.95 43.50 42.20 39.37 39.12
Root length(cm)
0 nM 19.38 18.45 16.22 13.82 12.81
250 nM 20.56 19.48 18.20 16.26 17
500 nM 21.10 20.40 19.47 16.99 18.73
Leaf fresh weight(g)
0 nM 4.44 3.62 3.08 2.35 1.48
250 nM 4.95 3.92 3.55 2.91 2.26
500 nM 5.33 5.04 4.39 3.86 2.47
Stem fresh weight(g)
0 nM 6.61 6.15 5.18 4.70 3.86
250 nM 7.28 6.57 5.90 5.15 4.48
500 nM 7.98 7.18 6.46 5.41 5.23
Root fresh weight(g)
0 nM 2.80 2.23 2.06 1.32 0.59
250 nM 3 2.7 2.26 2.08 1.14
i^ivi 500 nM 3.73 3.06 2.71 3.15 2.39
Leaf number
0 nM 17.75 16.75 15 14.75 13.75
250 nM 17.75 17.50 16.75 15.75 15
500 nM 18.50 18.25 17.50 16.50 15,75
Table2. Effects of Cd and SA on leaf fatty acid profile (% of total lipids) of sunflower plants
SA treatments Cd concentration
0 nM 50 nM 100 nM 150 nM 200 nM
Palmitic acid
0 nM 13.17 13.41 13.75 13.61 22.01
250 nM 16.52 14.12 15.91 17.10 18.2
500 nM 13.96 6.78 14.5 15.97 16.27
Stearic acid
0 nM 4.5 7.94 8.96 9.01 10.84
250 nM 6.92 4.11 5.52 6.04 8.95
500 nM 4.3 5.10 7.05 8.03 6.14
Oleic acid
0 nM 25.59 23.52 11.82 10.63 9.95
250 nM 19.91 14.22 10.13 7.11 14.21
500 nM 28.21 25.19 12.42 8.51 9
Linoleic acid
0 nM 51.16 52.03 64.30 65.62 49.92
250 nM 54.45 66.09 66.12 68.06 53.73
500 nM 50.20 61.03 64.28 65 66.21
Linolenic acid
0 nM 0.53 0.26 0.21 0.2 0.42
250 nM 0.80 0.30 0.85 0.96 0.67
500 nM 0.44 0.49 0.66 0.72 0.81
Data are shown as mean of four replicates. For each parameter, data with the same letter are not significantly different at
0.05 (Duncan's test).
Leave fresh weight (g)
0 50 100 150 200
Cadmium concentration (fiM)
Fig 1C
Figure 1. Effects of Cd and SA on fresh weights of sunflower organs (A: leaves fresh weight,B:stem fresh weight,C:root fresh weight ), data are means of four replicates. Different small letters of the same type of column indicated significant difference between lines. (leaves and stem fresh weight: P<0.01), (root fresh weight: P<0.001) according to Duncan's multiple range test.
Figure 2. Effects of SA and Cd on stem and root length in sunflower (A: stem length,B: root length ) , data are means of four replicates. At stem length means with common letters are not significantly different : ns (not significant) according to Duncan's multiple range test.In root length, different between lines at P<0.001.
Figure 3. Effects of Cd and SA on leaf number in sunflower, data are means of four replicates. Means with common letters are not significantly different: ns (not significant) according to Duncan's multiple range test.
Figure 4. Chromatogram curve of sunflower leaf oil DISCUSSION
Application of different levels of CdCl2
in
sunflower plants adversely decreased their growth pattern (leaf number, stem and root length, fresh weight of stem, root and leaf) as compared with control plants (Table 1).These results are in agreement with those of Tukaj et al. (2007) in green microalga and Lopez-Millan et al. (2009) in tomato who showed that cadmium caused a significant reduction in growth parameters.
The beneficial effect of SA was seen on all growth parameters in sunflower. The same positive effect of SA on growth in the presence of Cd was
reported by Metwally et al. (2003) that being exposed to cadmium, reduced root and shoot length and fresh weight in barley seedlings and SA treatment decreased Cd toxicity. These results in response to Cd stress and SA are also in agreement with those of Popova et al. (2008) in pea plant and Shi et al. (2009) in hemp plants. The reduction in growth could be a consequence of the Cd-interference with a number of metabolic processes associated with normal development such as photosynthetic pigments production, membrane lipid composition, water uptake and mineral nutrition that would result in deficiency in essential elements and ultimately reduction in biomass
production (Ammar et al., 2008). Cadmium growth inhibition could also be due to the inhibition of cell division and elongation rate of cells that results in a decline in biomass production. This result mainly occurs by an irreversible inhibition of proton pump responsible for the process (Choudhury, 2004) .
Metal toxicity in plants may result from the binding of metals to protein sulphydryls, which in turn would cause a modification of protein structures and inhibition of enzymatic activities involved in growth. These alterations usually lead to growth inhibition and cell death (Groppa et al., 2008). SA is needed for the adaptation process and the induction of stress tolerance) Popova et al., 2008). We assume that the beneficial effects of SA during an growth period can be related to avoidance of cumulative damage upon exposure to cadmium or modification of compartmentalization. Alternatively, SA could be involved in the expression of specific proteins or defense-related enzymes) Krantev et al., 2006). SA can also form a complex with Cd that may provide Cd toleranc ) Moussa and EL-Gamal, 2010).
In sunflower plants, leaf fatty acids composition showed significant changes with Cd stress and this oxidative damage was alleviated by SA treatment. The analysis of fatty acid composition in Cd treated plants supports this observation (Table 2). A decrease in the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids ; C18:3, C18:2 and C18:1and an increase in the amount of saturated fatty acids such as C16:0 and C18:0 was observed under Cd stress as compared with control plants . On the other hand, the accumulation of C16:0 and C18:0 by Cd treatment, could be an indication that there are some alterations in biosynthesis pathway between these two acids.
This confirmed that Cd toxicity in sunflower plants was linked to free radical processes in membrane components leading to alterations in membrane stability and increasing their permeability. The peroxidation of unsaturated lipids in biological membranes is the most prominent symptom of oxidative stress in animals and plants (Cho and Seo, 2005). Furthermore, the protective effect of SA on leaf membrane integrity could be related to changes in lipid content and fatty acid profiles (Table 2). Given the known effects of Cd on photosynthesis then it is not surprising that the supply of carbon for fatty acid synthesis and lipid assembly as lipid biosynthetic pathways is altered (Popova et al., 2008). SA application seems to reduce the Cd effect on lipid unsaturation. In SA-treated sunflower plants significant decrease in C16:0 and C18:0 were observed. the amount of linolenic (C18:3), linoleic (C18:2) and oleic (C18:1) acids was increased (Table 2).This could be an indication that the desaturase activity by the transformation of C18:0 to C18:1, C18:2 and C18:3 was enhanced. The increase of the unsaturated fatty acids observed under the influence of SA lead to increase the fluidity of lipid membranes that probably affects their permeability and stability. Membrane unsaturation has been shown to be closely related to the heavy metal tolerance in many higher plants (Nouairi et al., 2006). Also, it has been suggested that the high level of unsaturation of thylakoid lipids may be required to maintain the degree of fluidity needed for the diffusion of lipophilic compounds and/or may confer a suitable geometry to the lipid molecules (Quartacci et al., 2001).
These results exhibit the beneficial effect of SA treatment on leaf lipid metabolism probably in relation with chlorophyll synthesis, photosynthetic
activity and carbon supply of sunflower plants exposed to Cd (Quartacci et al., 2001).
Therefore SA treatment of Cd stressed sunflower plants could stimulate their Cd tolerance via amelioration of growth parameter and lipid profile.
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