article · Frontiers in Plant Science
Exposure to cadmium severely hinders crop growth by damaging photosynthetic pigments, lowering photosystem II efficiency, and generating damaging reactive oxygen species. This study tested the effects of foliar sprays of methyl jasmonate on one-week-old seedlings of three pea varieties grown under cadmium stress across a two-week period. Cadmium alone impaired seedling growth, decreased chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, reduced photosynthetic efficiency, and elevated lipid peroxidation. Treating the plants with methyl jasmonate mitigated these toxic effects by enhancing the activity of key antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase. Consequently, the treatment restored photosynthetic pigments, boosted photosystem II performance, and enhanced overall plant growth. In particular, methyl jasmonate stimulated root biomass more significantly than shoot biomass, demonstrating that it counteracts heavy metal stress by stabilising cellular redox balance and preserving photosynthetic machinery in pea crops.
Cadmium contamination in agricultural soils undermines crop productivity by damaging plant cellular processes and photosynthetic capacity. Understanding how treatment with methyl jasmonate protects vital photosynthetic systems and stimulates natural antioxidant defences helps identify biological approaches to safeguard legume crops in soils affected by heavy metal toxicity.
This work indicates that methyl jasmonate could serve as an active ingredient in foliar biostimulant or crop-protection sprays to help legume growers maintain productivity in heavy metal contaminated soils. Because the findings derive from two-week seedling trials under controlled experimental conditions, the research is at an early laboratory stage and requires broader field testing before commercial use by agricultural input manufacturers or farmers.
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The accumulation of cadmium (Cd) in leaves reduces photosynthetic capacity by degrading photosynthetic pigments, reducing photosystem II activity, and producing reactive oxygen species (ROS). Though it was demonstrated that the application of Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA) induces heavy metal (HM) stress tolerance in plants, its role in adjusting redox balance and photosynthetic machinery is unclear. In this study, the role of MeJA in modulating photosystem II (PSII) activity and antioxidant defense system was investigated to reduce the toxic effects of Cd on the growth of pea (<i>Pisum sativum</i> L.) cultivars. One-week-old seedlings of three pea varieties were subjected to Cd stress (0, 50, 100 μm), and MeJA (0, 1, 5, 10 μm) was applied as a foliar spray for 2 weeks. Cadmium stress reduced the growth of all three pea varieties. Cadmium stress decreased photosynthetic pigments [Chl a (58.15%), Chl b (48.97%), total Chl (51.9%) and carotenoids (44.01%)] and efficiency of photosystem II [Fv/Fm (19.52%) and Y(II; 67.67%)], while it substantially increased Cd accumulation along with an increase in ROS (79.09%) and lipid peroxidation (129.28%). However, such adverse effects of Cd stress varied in different pea varieties. Exogenous application of MeJA increased the activity of a battery of antioxidant enzymes [superoxide dismutase (33.68%), peroxidase (29.75%), and catalase (38.86%)], improved photosynthetic pigments and PSII efficiency. This led to improved growth of pea varieties under Cd stress, such as increased fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots. In addition, improvement in root biomass by MeJA was more significant than that of shoot biomass. Thus, the mitigating effect of MeJA was attributed to its role in cellular redox balance and photosynthetic machinery of pea plants when exposed to Cd stress.
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DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.860664
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