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Nickel toxicity pretreatment attenuates salt stress by activating antioxidative system and ion homeostasis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.): an interplay from mild to severe stress

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Abstract

Plants antioxidative system is the first line of defense against oxidative stress caused secondarily by toxic ions under salinity. Plants with pre-activated antioxidative system can better adapt to salinity and can result in higher growth and yield. The current experiment was conducted to assess the adaptation of two tomato genotypes (Riogrande and Green Gold) with pre-activated antioxidative enzymes against salt stress. Tomato seedlings were exposed to mild stress (Ni: 0, 15 and 30 mg L−1) for three weeks to activate the antioxidative enzymes. The seedlings with pre-activated antioxidative enzymes were then grown under severe stress in hydroponics (0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl) and soil (control, 7.5 and 15 dS m−1) to check the adaptation, growth and yield. The results showed that Ni toxicity significantly enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, APX and POX) in both the genotypes and reduced growth with higher values in genotype Riogrande than Green Gold. The seedlings with pre-activated antioxidant enzymes showed better growth, low Na+ and high K+ uptake and maintained higher antioxidative enzymes activity than non-treated seedlings after four weeks of salt stress treatment in hydroponics. Similarly, the results in soil salinity treatment of the Ni pretreated seedlings showed higher yield characteristics (fruit yield per plant, average fruit weight and fruit diameter) than non-treated seedlings. However, Ni pretreatment had nonsignificant effect on tomato fruit quality characteristics like fruit dry matter percentage, total soluble solids, fruit juice pH and titratable acidity. The genotype Riogrande showed better growth, yield and fruit quality than Green Gold due to higher activity of antioxidant enzymes and better ion homeostasis as a result of Ni pretreatment. The results suggest that pre-activation antioxidant enzymes by Ni treatment proved to be an effective strategy to attenuate salt stress for better growth and yield of tomato plants.

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Funding

The research was supported by COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) research grant program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Vehari, 61100, Pakistan

    Muhammad Azeem Subhani, Muhammad Amjad, Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal, Behzad Murtaza, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Asif Naeem & Ghulam Abbas

  2. Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 50, 8830, Tjele, Denmark

    Muhammad Amjad & Mathias Neumann Andersen

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  1. Muhammad Azeem Subhani
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  2. Muhammad Amjad
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  3. Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal
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  4. Behzad Murtaza
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  5. Muhammad Imran
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  6. Muhammad Asif Naeem
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Contributions

MAS contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation and writing—original draft. MA contributed to conceptualization, writing—original draft, methodology, writing—review and editing and project administration. MMI contributed to investigation, data curation and visualization. BM contributed to project administration, writing—review and editing and formal analysis. MI contributed to formal analysis, methodology and writing—review and editing. MAN contributed to methodology and data curation. GA contributed to writing—review and editing and formal analysis. MNA contributed to writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Amjad.

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Subhani, M.A., Amjad, M., Iqbal, M.M. et al. Nickel toxicity pretreatment attenuates salt stress by activating antioxidative system and ion homeostasis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.): an interplay from mild to severe stress. Environ Geochem Health 45, 227–246 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01336-3

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