ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Comparative Analysis of Pre-Germination
and Post-Germination Inoculation Treatments
of Zea mays L. to Mitigate Chromium Toxicity
in Cr-Contaminated Soils
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Department of Botany, University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan
Submission date: 2017-08-17
Final revision date: 2017-12-17
Acceptance date: 2017-12-25
Online publication date: 2018-10-02
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Corresponding author
Ambreen Ahmed
Department of Botany, University of the Punjab, Department of Botany, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, University of the Punjab, 54590 Lahore, Pakistan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(2):597-607
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TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The release of heavy metals in the environment is a serious threat causing health hazards to living
beings. Hence, it is essential to remediate chemical contamination for a safe environment. Bioremediation
is considered one of the most cost-effective and sustainable agricultural techniques, in contrast with other
conventional methods to reduce chromium toxicity in agricultural lands polluted with chromium, as it
is a natural way to mitigate the toxic effects of hexavalent chromium with simultaneous amelioration in
the growth of plants. In the current study, an attempt was made to reduce toxicity of chromium by using
six plant growth-promoting chromium-resistant bacteria (Bacillus pumilus (ALa), Bacillus atrophaeus
(BL2), Bacillus cereus (AR), Staphylococcus lentus (E3), T2aii and W6ii) for enhancing the growth
of Zea mays L. in soil contaminated with chromium. In this regard, a pot experiment was conducted
with pre-germination and post-germination inoculation treatments to Zea mays seeds in the presence of
chromium stress, i.e., 200, 400, and 600 μg/ml. Our results have shown that toxicity of chromium caused
a reduction in photosynthetic pigments and protein content together with reduction in growth parameters
of plants, while treatments with chromium-resistant PGPB significantly enhanced chromium tolerance in
treated plants compared with non-inoculated treatments in the presence of chromium stress. The present
investigation suggests that applying post-germination inoculation treatments is an effective technique for
improved plant growth and heavy metal alleviation in metal-contaminated soil. Thus, our current work
revealed an incentive approach toward the green revolution in the age of industrialization by exploring
beneficial chromium-tolerant auxin-producing microbes.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
CITATIONS (8):
1.
Indole-3-acetic acid synthesizing chromium-resistant bacteria can mitigate chromium toxicity in Helianthus annuus L.
Hadia-E-Fatima, Ambreen Ahmed
Plant, Soil and Environment
2.
Plant Phenolics in Sustainable Agriculture
Ambreen Ahmed, Aqsa Tariq, Sabiha Habib
3.
q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Competition Graphs with Application in the Soil Ecosystem
Amna Habib, Muhammad Akram, Adeel Farooq
Mathematics
4.
Systematic review reveals gaps in standardized protocol to determine efficacy of PGPB use in plants grown under abiotic stress conditions at the field level
Tamara Valenzuela, Jacquelinne J. Acuña, Haroldo Salvo, Roland Bol, Angela Sessitsch, Milko A. Jorquera
Rhizosphere
5.
Expression profiling of stress protectants in Zea mays L. plants treated with Bacillus pumilus: surfactant-producing bioeffector
S. Habib, A. Ahmed
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
6.
Maize associated bacterial microbiome linked mitigation of heavy metal stress: A multidimensional detoxification approach
Asfa Rizvi, Bilal Ahmed, Mohd. Saghir Khan, Vishnu D. Rajput, Shahid Umar, Tatiana Minkina, Jintae Lee
Environmental and Experimental Botany
7.
Microbial-assisted alleviation of chromium toxicity in plants: A critical review
Freeha Fatima Qureshi, Muhammad Arslan Ashraf, Rizwan Rasheed, Iqbal Hussain, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Iqbal, Jean Wan Hong Yong
Plant Stress
8.
Symbiosis in Nature
Aqsa Tariq, Ambreen Ahmed