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Mitigation of Pb toxicity by Mn in seedling of the cacao clonal CCN 51 genotype grown in soil: physiological, biochemical, nutritional and molecular responses

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Abstract

Lead (Pb) is a highly toxic metal for humans, animals and plants even at low concentrations in the soil. The ingestion of chocolate produced from contaminated beans can contribute to consumer exposure to Pb. While, Mn is an element essential for plants and participates as enzymatic cofactors in several metabolic pathways. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Mn on mitigation of Pb toxicity in seedling of the cacao clonal CCN 51 genotype grown in soils with different doses of Pb, Mn and Mn+Pb, through physiological, biochemical, molecular and nutritional responses. It was found that the seedling of the cacao clonal CCN 51 genotype grown in soils with high Pb, Mn and Mn+Pb contents accumulated these heavy metals in the roots and leaves. Mn doses reduced the Pb uptake by root system and prevented that the Pb accumulated at toxic levels in the roots and leaves of the plants. High doses of Pb applied in soil were highly toxic to the plants, leading, in some cases, them to death. However, no Mn toxicity was observed in cocoa plants, even at high doses in the soil. Uptake of Pb and Mn by the roots and its transport into the aerial part of the plant promoted changes in photosynthesis, leaf gas exchange, respiration, carboxylation and in the instantaneous efficiency of carboxylation, reducing in the treatments with the highest concentrations of Pb, and the emission of chlorophyll fluorescence, affecting the efficiency of photosystem 2 and the production of photoassimilates. Besides that, Pb, Mn and Mn+Pb toxicities activated defense mechanisms in plants that alter the gene expression of met, psbA and psbO, increasing in plants subjected to high concentrations of Pb and the activity of the enzymes involved in the cellular detoxification of excess ROS at the leaf level. In addition, high uptake of Mn by root system was found to reduced Pb uptake in plants grown with Mn+Pb in the soil. Therefore, application of Mn in the soil can be used to mitigate the Pb toxicity in seedling of the cacao clonal CCN 51 genotype grown in contaminated soils.

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The data contained in this research were the result of the evaluation of the variables and the measurements made by the work team.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this work thank the UESC Plant Physiology group for their support in setting up and evaluating the experiment, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS) and CAPES.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of Santa Cruz, Department of Biological Sciences, Rodovia Jorge Amado, km 16, 45662-900, Ilhéus, BA, Brazil

    Jose Julian Apraez Muñoz, Alex-Alan Furtado de Almeida, Carlos Priminho Pirovani & Dário Ahnert

  2. USDA-ARS-Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, USA

    Virupax C. Baligar

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  1. Jose Julian Apraez Muñoz
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JJAP: Collected the data; Contributed data or analysis tools; Performed the analysis; Wrote the paper. AAFA: Contributed data or analysis tools; Performed the analysis; Wrote the paper. CPP: Contributed data or analysis tools. DA: Contributed Performed the analysis. VCP: Contributed data or analysis tools.

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Apraez Muñoz, J.J., de Almeida, AA.F., Pirovani, C.P. et al. Mitigation of Pb toxicity by Mn in seedling of the cacao clonal CCN 51 genotype grown in soil: physiological, biochemical, nutritional and molecular responses. Ecotoxicology 30, 240–256 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-021-02348-y

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