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Melatonin alleviates cadmium phytotoxicity through regulation of growth, photosynthesis, and antioxidant potential in two pepper genotypes

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Abstract

The global agricultural productivity has been significantly impaired due to the extensive use of heavy metal. Cadmium (Cd) is now recognized as a significant soil and environmental contaminant that is primarily spread by human activity. This study investigates the possible impact of melatonin (ME) in mitigating the toxicity caused by Cd in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings. There were three groups of plants used in the experiment: control (CK) plants, Cd-stressed plants and ME-pretreated + Cd-stressed plants. The concentration of ME and Cd was 1 µM and 0.1 mM, respectively, and applied as root application. The results described that Cd treatment remarkably reduced growth parameters, impaired pigment concentration, hindered gas exchange traits. In contrast, ME supplementation significantly recovered these parameters by increase in growth and biomass production of pepper seedlings under Cd toxicity. In addition, ME application considerably increased osmolyte production and protein level in pepper leaves and roots. Furthermore, ME positively upregulated the antioxidant enzymes activity and effectively decreased the oxidative damage in pepper leaves and roots. The enhanced antioxidant enzymes activity performed a significant role in the reduction of H2O2 and MDA concentration in plants under Cd stress. The findings indicated that the application of ME to plants effectively alleviates the stress caused by Cd exposure. Moreover, ME demonstrates significant efficacy in mitigating the adverse impacts of Cd on pepper plants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the Research Square platform and Springer Nature for publishing the pre-print of this manuscript with https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1651489/v1. The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP2024R182) King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticulture, The University of Agriculture, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

    Muhammad Saqib

  2. Department of Horticulture, University of Layyah, Layyah, Pakistan

    Umbreen Shahzad & Zakia Abid

  3. Department of Horticultural Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Faisal Zulfiqar

  4. ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, 171001, India

    Rahul Kumar Tiwari & Milan Kumar Lal

  5. Division of Crop Protection, ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, India

    Rahul Kumar Tiwari

  6. Division of Crop Physiology and Biochemistry, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India

    Milan Kumar Lal

  7. State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Developmental Regulation, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Waleed Amjad Khan

  8. Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mohamed A. El-Sheikh

  9. Key Laboratory for Quality Regulation of Tropical Horticultural Crops of Hainan Province, School of Breeding and Multiplication (Sanya Institute of Breeding and Multiplication), Center of Nanfan and High-Efficiency Tropical Agriculture, Hainan University, Sanya, 572025, China

    Muhammad Ahsan Altaf

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Contributions

Material preparation was done by MS, data collection by ZA, data analysis by MS, ZA, and US, original draft preparation by MS, MAA, formal analysis by FZ, WAK, reviewing and editing by RKT, MKL, MAE, and MAA and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Saqib, M., Shahzad, U., Abid, Z. et al. Melatonin alleviates cadmium phytotoxicity through regulation of growth, photosynthesis, and antioxidant potential in two pepper genotypes. Acta Physiol Plant 46, 49 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-024-03672-6

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