Acta Physiologiae Plantarum

, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp 365–373 | Cite as

Cadmium stress in wheat seedlings: growth, cadmium accumulation and photosynthesis

  • Dunwei Ci
  • Dong Jiang
  • Bernd Wollenweber
  • Tingbo Dai
  • Qi Jing
  • Weixing Cao
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Seedlings of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars Jing 411, Jinmai 30 and Yangmai 10 were exposed to 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 μM of CdCl2 in a solution culture experiment. The effects of cadmium (Cd) stress on wheat growth, leaf photon energy conversion, gas exchange, and Cd accumulation in wheat seedlings were investigated. Gas exchange was monitored at 3, 9, 24 days after treatment (DAT). Growth parameters, chlorophyll content, leaf chlorophyll fluorescence, and Cd concentration in shoot and root were measured at 24 DAT. Seedling growth, gas exchange, chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were generally depressed by Cd stress, especially under the high Cd concentrations. Cd concentration and accumulation in both shoots and roots increased with increasing external Cd concentrations. Relationships between corrected parameters of growth, photosynthesis and fluorescence and corrected Cd concentrations in shoots and roots could be explained by the regression model Y = K/(1 + exp(a + bX)). Jing 411 was found to be Cd tolerant considering parameters of chlorophyll content, photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence in which less Cd translocation was from roots into shoots. The high Cd concentrations were in shoots and roots in Yangmai 10 which has been found to be a relative Cd tolerant cultivar in terms of most growth parameters.

Keywords

Cadmium stress Gas exchange Chlorophyll fluorescence Growth Regression model Wheat 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (30671216 and 30700483), the International Cooperation Research Fund of Jiangsu Province (BZ2008329), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20050307006), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (06-0493), and the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (nycytx-03).

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Copyright information

© Franciszek Górski Institute of Plant Physiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dunwei Ci
    • 1
  • Dong Jiang
    • 1
    • 3
  • Bernd Wollenweber
    • 2
  • Tingbo Dai
    • 1
  • Qi Jing
    • 1
  • Weixing Cao
    • 1
  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture/Hi-Tech Key Laboratory of Information Agriculture of Jiangsu ProvinceNanjing Agricultural UniversityNanjingPeople’s Republic of China
  2. 2.Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, Research Centre FlakkebjergAarhus UniversitySlagelseDenmark
  3. 3.College of AgricultureNanjing Agricultural UniversityNanjingPeople’s Republic of China

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