Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
Rhizophagus irregularis inoculation alleviates Zn toxicity in Triticum aestivum L. by improving biochemical response, antioxidative defense, and nutrient uptake
*Article not assigned to an issue yet
Research Articles | Published: 19 January, 2026
First Page: 0
Last Page: 0
Views: 109
Keywords: n Rhizophagus irregularisn , Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, n Triticum aestivumn , Zn toxicity, Nutrient uptake
Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are among the beneficial root symbionts known to reduce abiotic stress in plants. Though, Zn is an essential trace element, its toxicity interferes with the normal physiological functioning of plants. The current study assessed the impacts of AM fungi Rhizophagus irregularis inoculation on the morphology, biochemical response, antioxidative enzyme activity and nutrient uptake of Triticum aestivum L. grown in Zn spiked soil (100–500 mg/kg). The toxic effect of Zn at 300–500 mg/kg soil treatments was observed in T. aestivum adversely affecting morpho-physiology. AM fungi R. irregularis inoculation improved morphological features shoot and root length, dry biomass, and relative water content. The chlorophyll a and b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid content was enhanced in mycorrhizal plants compared to non-mycorrhizal. The free amino acid and proline levels significantly decreased in AM fungi-inoculated plants compared to the non-inoculated. Enhanced antioxidative enzyme activities for SOD, CAT, GPX, and APX in mycorrhizal plants modulated redox state as evident from lower MDA (7–19%) and H2O2 (25–28%) levels with AM fungi inoculation. Macronutrients P, K, Ca, and Mg uptake significantly improved with R. irregularis inoculation. Zn immobilization in AM fungi colonized root attributed to reduced transportation to shoot, resulting in increased uptake of Fe, Cu, and Mn. Findings highlighted the significant role of AM fungi R. irregularis in alleviation of Zn toxicity by improving hydration status, oxidative stress management through antioxidative enzymes, and modulation of nutrient uptake. AM fungi R. irregularis is a promising microbial inoculant for Zn stress mitigation in T. aestivum.
References
Abu-Elsaoud AM, Nafady NA, Abdel-Azeem AM (2017) Arbuscular mycorrhizal strategy for zinc mycoremediation and diminished translocation to shoots and grains in wheat. PLoS ONE 12(11):e0188220. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188220
Adeyemi NO, Atayese MO, Sakariyawo OS, Azeez JO, Sobowale SP, Olubode A, Mudathir R, Adebayo R, Adeoye S (2021) Alleviation of heavy metal stress by arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in Glycine max (L.) grown in copper, lead and zinc contaminated soils. Rhizosph 18:100325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhisph.2021.100325
Aebi H (1984) Catalase in vitro. In: Packer L (ed) Methods in enzymology, vol 105. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 121–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0076-6879(84)05016-3
Akther MS, Das U, Tahura S, Prity SA, Islam M, Kabir AH (2020) Regulation of Zn uptake and redox status confers Zn deficiency tolerance in tomato. Sci Hortic 273:109624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2020.109624
Alengebawy A, Abdelkhalek ST, Qureshi SR, Wang MQ (2021) Heavy metals and pesticide toxicity in agricultural soil and plants: ecological risks and human health implications. Toxics 9(3):42. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9030042
Alexieva V, Sergiev I, Mapelli S, Karanov E (2001) The effect of drought and ultraviolet radiation on growth and stress markers in pea and wheat. Plant Cell Environ 24(12):1337–1334. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3040.2001.00778.x
Arnon DI (1949) Copper enzymes in isolated chloroplasts. Polyphenoxidase in Beta vulgaris. Plant Physio 24(1):1–15
Bankaji I, Pérez-Clemente RM, Caçador I, Sleimi N (2019) Accumulation potential of Atriplex halimus to zinc and lead combined with NaCl: effects on physiological parameters and antioxidant enzymes activities. S Afr J Bot 123:51–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2019.02.011
Bates LS, Waldren RA, Teare ID (1973) Rapid determination of free proline for water stress studies. Plant Soil 39(1):205–207. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00018060
Batista-Silva W, Heinemann B, Rugen N, Nunes-Nesi A, Araújo WL, Braun HP, Hildebrandt TM (2019) The role of amino acid metabolism during abiotic stress release. Plant Cell Environ 42(5):1630–1644. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13518
Begum N, Qin C, Ahanger MA, Raza S, Khan MI, Ashraf M, Ahmed N, Zhang L (2019) Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in plant growth regulation: implications in abiotic stress tolerance. Front Plant Sci 10:1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01068
Boorboori MR, Zhang HY (2022) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are an influential factor in improving the phytoremediation of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and chromium. J Fungi 8(2):176. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8020176
Borde M, Dudhane M, Jite P (2011) Growth photosynthetic activity and antioxidant responses of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal bajra (Pennisetum glaucum) crop under salinity stress conditions. Crop Prot 30(3):265–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2010.12.010
Chand V, Prasad S (2013) ICP-OES assessment of heavy metal contamination in tropical marine sediments. A comparative study of two digestion techniques. Microchem J 111:53–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2012.11.007
Chandrasekaran M (2022) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediated alleviation of drought stress via non-enzymatic antioxidants: a meta-analysis. Plants 11(9):2448. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11192448
Coccina A, Cavagnaro TR, Pellegrino E, Ercoli L, McLaughlin MJ, Watts-Williams SJ (2019) The mycorrhizal pathway of zinc uptake contributes to zinc accumulation in barley and wheat grain. BMC Plant Biol 19(1):133. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-019-1741-y
Daniel BA, Skipper HA (1982) Methods for the recovery and quantitative estimation of propagules from soil. In: Schenck NC (ed) Methods & principles of mycorrhizal research. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, pp 29–35
Dhindsa RS, Plumb-Dhindsa P, Thorpe TA (1981) Leaf senescence: correlated with increased levels of membrane permeability and lipid peroxidation, and decreased levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase. J Exp Bot 32(1):93–101. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/32.1.93
Di Baccio D, Kopriva S, Sebastiani L, Rennenberg H (2005) Does glutathione metabolism have a role in the defence of poplar against zinc excess? New Phytol 167:73–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01462.x
Erenstein O, Jaleta M, Mottaleb KA, Sonder K, Donovan J, Braun HJ (2022) Global trends in wheat production, consumption and trade. In: Reynolds MP, Braun HJ (eds) Wheat improvement. Springer, Cham, pp 47–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90673-3_4
Gerdemann JW, Nicolson TH (1963) Spores of mycorrhizal Endogone species extracted from soil by wet sieving and decanting. Trans Br Mycol Soc 46(2):235–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1536(63)80079-0
Giovannetti M, Mosse B (1980) An evaluation of techniques for measuring vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal infection in roots. New Phytol. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1980.tb04556.x
González L, González-Vilar M (2001) Determination of relative water content. In: Reigosa Roger MJ (ed) Handbook of plant ecophysiology techniques. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 207–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48057-3_14
Hamzah Saleem M, Usman K, Rizwan M, Al Jabri H, Alsafran M (2022) Functions and strategies for enhancing zinc availability in plants for sustainable agriculture. Front Plant Sci 13:1033092. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1033092
Heath RL, Packer L (1968) Photoperoxidation in isolated chloroplasts: i. Kinetics and stoichiometry of fatty acid peroxidation. Arch Biochem Biophys 125(1):189–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861(68)90654-1
Hemeda HM, Klein BP (1990) Effects of naturally occurring antioxidants on peroxidase activity of vegetable extracts. J Food Sci 55(1):184–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1990.tb06048.x
Hosseinifard M, Stefaniak S, Ghorbani Javid M, Soltani E, Wojtyla Ł, Garnczarska M (2022) Contribution of exogenous proline to abiotic stresses tolerance in plants: a review. Int J Mol Sci 23(9):5186. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23095186
Jiang Y, Wang W, Xie Q, Liu NA, Liu L, Wang D, Zhang X, Yang C, Chen X, Tang D, Wang E (2017) Plants transfer lipids to sustain colonization by mutualistic mycorrhizal and parasitic fungi. Science 356(6343):1172–1175. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam9970
Kaur H, Garg N (2021) Zinc toxicity in plants: a review. Planta 253:129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-021-03642-z
Kumar S, Saxena S (2019) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) from heavy metal-contaminated soils: molecular approach and application in phytoremediation. Biofertilizers Sustain Agric Environ 8:489–500. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8020176
Li G, Li C, Rengel Z, Liu H, Zhao P (2020) Excess Zn-induced changes in physiological parameters and expression levels of TaZips in two wheat genotypes. Environ Exp Bot 177:104133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2020.104133
Manley BF, Lotharukpong JS, Barrera-Redondo J, Llewellyn T, Yildirir G, Sperschneider J, Corradi N, Paszkowski U, Miska EA, Dallaire A (2023) A highly contiguous genome assembly reveals sources of genomic novelty in the symbiotic fungus Rhizophagus irregularis. G3 Genes Genomes Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad077
Mathur N, Vyas A (1995) Influence of VA mycorrhizae on net photosynthesis and transpiration of Ziziphus mauritiana. J Plant Physiol 147:328–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0176-1617(11)82161-9
Mitra D, Djebaili R, Pellegrini M, Mahakur B, Sarker A, Chaudhary P, Khoshru B, Del Gallo M, Kitouni M, Barik DP, Panneerselvam P, Das Mohapatra PK (2021) Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis: plant growth improvement and induction of resistance under stressful conditions. J Plant Nutr 44(13):1993–2028. https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2021.1881552
Moore S, Stein WH (1963) Chromatographic determination of amino acids by the use of automatic recording equipment. In: Colowick SP, Kaplan NO (eds) Methods in enzymology, vol 6. Academic Press, New York, pp 819–831
Nafady NA, Elgharably A (2018) Mycorrhizal symbiosis and phosphorus fertilization effects on Zea mays growth and heavy metals uptake. Int J Phytoremediat 20(9):869–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2018.1438358
Nakano Y, Asada K (1981) Hydrogen peroxide is scavenged by ascorbate-specific peroxidase in spinach chloroplasts. Plant Cell Physiol 22(5):867–880. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pcp.a076232
Phillips JM, Hayman DS (1970) Improved procedures for clearing roots and staining parasitic and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for rapid assessment of infection. Trans Br Mycol Soc 55:158–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1536(70)80110-3
Saboor A, Ali MA, Husain S, Tahir MS, Irfan M, Bilal M, Baig KS, Datta R, Ahmed N, Danish S, Glick BR (2021) Regulation of phosphorus and zinc uptake in relation to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for better maize growth. Agronomy-Basel 11(11):2322. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112322
Shri PU, Pillay V (2017) Excess of soil zinc interferes with uptake of other micro and macro nutrients in Sorghum bicolor (L.) plants. Indian J Plant Physiol 22(3):304–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-017-0313-0
Author Information
Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India