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Estimating tomato tolerance to heavy metal toxicity: cadmium as study case

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 25, pages 27535–27544 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

This work aimed to develop a reliable and fast approach to estimate the plant tolerance degree to heavy metal (HM) phytotoxicity. Two independent experiments were carried out using tomato accessions, with contrasting morphological features, that were grown in a hydroponic solution containing different CdCl2 concentrations for 7 days. Plant dry weight and chlorophyll content (SPAD units) were evaluated, and tolerance degree to Cd toxicity was estimated according to the tolerance index (TI), which is a new mathematical formula based on plant biomass proposed in this study. Although with different magnitudes, tomato exhibited reductions in their dry weight concurrently with the increasing CdCl2 concentration. By contrast, chlorophyll content presented no standard response, decreasing and even increasing according to CdCl2 concentrations, indicating that only under certain conditions (particularly, at CdCl2 50 μM), this parameter can be used to estimate plant tolerance to Cd toxicity. TI was efficiently able to segregate tomato cultivars with similar performance (based on the total dry weight of plants), and such segregation was optimized when the hydroponic solution contained from 25 to 50 μM CdCl2. Within this range, data pointed at 35 μM CdCl2 as the best concentration to be employed in studies related to the tomato tolerance/sensitivity to Cd toxicity. In conclusion, TI proved to be a reliable estimator of tolerance degree to Cd exposure in genetically distinct tomato accessions. Moreover, TI can be used for this same purpose in plants under other HM-induced stresses.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Mr. Etienne Vernet (Kokopelli Seeds Foundation) for providing the tomato seeds.

Funding

This work was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP – grant no. 2009/54676-0; scholarships: 2012/03861-4, 2013/15217-5, and 2015/26640-1, 2016/05788-3) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico for the research fellowship to R.A.A. (CNPq no. 303749/2016-4).

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Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Produção Vegetal, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil

    Fernando Angelo Piotto

  2. Departamento de Genética, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil

    Marcia Eugenia Amaral Carvalho, Mônica Regina Franco, Katherine Derlene Batagin-Piotto & Ricardo Antunes Azevedo

  3. Instituto Federal Goiano, Polo de Inovação em Bioenergia e Grãos, Rodovia Sul Goiânia km 1, CP 66, Rio Verde, GO, 75901-970, Brazil

    Lucas Anjos Souza

  4. Departamento de Ciência do Solo, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil

    Flávio Henrique Silva Rabêlo

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  1. Fernando Angelo Piotto
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  2. Marcia Eugenia Amaral Carvalho
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  3. Lucas Anjos Souza
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  4. Flávio Henrique Silva Rabêlo
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  5. Mônica Regina Franco
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  6. Katherine Derlene Batagin-Piotto
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  7. Ricardo Antunes Azevedo
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Correspondence to Fernando Angelo Piotto.

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Responsible editor: Elena Maestri

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Piotto, F.A., Carvalho, M.E.A., Souza, L.A. et al. Estimating tomato tolerance to heavy metal toxicity: cadmium as study case. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 27535–27544 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2778-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2778-4

Keywords

  • Chlorophyll content
  • Biomass accumulation
  • Accessions
  • Solanum lycopersicum
  • SPAD
  • Tolerance index