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Amelioration of cadmium stress in Withania somnifera by ROS management: active participation of primary and secondary metabolism

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Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) is considered as a non-essential heavy metal with substantial toxicity on environment. Withania somnifera, a reputed therapeutic herb exhibits vast pharmacological activities due to the presence of steroidal lactones-withanolides. The present study deals with reactive oxygen species (ROS) management through primary and secondary metabolism as adaptive response, on exogenous Cd exposure of W. somnifera. Increased invertase enzyme activity resulted in higher reducing sugars in plant under Cd stress to provide additional carbon source and NADH or NADPH. Higher activities of proline metabolic pathway enzymes such as ornithine aminotransferase (OAT) and pyrroline-5-corboxylate synthase (P5CS) resulted in elevated proline accumulation. The considerable participation of phenylpropanoid metabolism also found dominantly upregulated. Increased enzyme activities of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), shikimate dehydrogenase (SKDH), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), and cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CADH) resulted in phenolics and flavonoids accumulation under higher Cd stress. Upregulation of glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity conferred its role in Cd chelation. In addition, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), amyl esterase (EST) and diaphorase (DIA) established their participation in Cd tolerance mechanism. Thus, present study elucidated major role of proline and phenylpropanoid metabolism in providing the osmoticum and antioxidants to the plants under Cd stress. The information may be helpful in developing stress resistant plants by targeting these pathways using conventional and molecular approaches.

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Acknowledgements

NSS is thankful to NMITLI, HCP-0010 and MLP-5 for the financial grant to support research in the lab. BM is thankful to ICMR for SRF (File No. 45/39/2014-TRM-BMS). BM also acknowledges AcSIR PhD program for registration (Enrolment No. 10BB13J10008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolic and Structural Biology Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, 226015, India

    Bhawana Mishra & Neelam Singh Sangwan

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR-Human Resource Development Centre Campus, Sector-19, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad, UP, 201002, India

    Bhawana Mishra

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh, Haryana, 123031, India

    Neelam Singh Sangwan

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  1. Bhawana Mishra
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Correspondence to Neelam Singh Sangwan.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

. Diagrammatic representation of major metabolism in relation to adaptive responses in W. somnifera under Cd stress. (PDF 1004 KB)

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Mishra, B., Singh Sangwan, N. Amelioration of cadmium stress in Withania somnifera by ROS management: active participation of primary and secondary metabolism. Plant Growth Regul 87, 403–412 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-019-00480-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-019-00480-8

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