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Consequences of copper treatment on pigeon pea photosynthesis, osmolytes and antioxidants defense

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Abstract

An attempt was made to explore the effect of copper sulphate treatment on growth, photosynthesis, osmolytes and antioxidants in 15 days old seedlings of C. cajan (Pigeonpea). C. cajan seedlings were grown in 0, 1, 5 and 10 mM concentrations of copper sulphate in petriplates lined with Whatman filter paper for 15 days. Root length and shoot length was decreased in a dose dependent manner with highest decrease of 82.80 and 45.92% in 10 mM Cu stress. Photosynthetic efficiency (qP, qN and Y) was decreased in a dose dependent manner whereas NPQ was increased in 1 and 5 mM and decreased in 10 mM Cu. Photosynthetic pigments viz total chlorophyll and carotenoids were increased in low concentrations and decreased in high concentrations of Cu. Osmolytes such as proline, glycine betaine and sugars were found to be increased in a dose dependent manner. Similarly antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase and catalase increased to 129.17 and 169.7%, respectively under Cu stress. Vitamin C and vitamin E was also increased in different concentrations of Cu to a significant level. It can be concluded from the present study that C. cajan can tolerate Cu stress up to 5 mM by adjusting the proportion of proline, glycine betaine, sugars and vitamins along with increasing the activity of some of the antioxidant enzymes.

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Acknowledgment

Authors are highly acknowledged to Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (DST, New Delhi) for financial support in the form of Women Scientist Project (WOS-A); Head, Department of Botany, Punjabi University Patiala for providing experimental facility and Head, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana for providing certified seeds of pigeonpea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, 147 002, India

    Poonam Sharma, Geetika Sirhindi, Harpreet Kaur & Ruqia Mushtaq

  2. Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, ICAR, Ranchi, 830410, India

    Poonam Sharma & Anil Kumar Singh

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  1. Poonam Sharma
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  2. Geetika Sirhindi
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  3. Anil Kumar Singh
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Correspondence to Geetika Sirhindi.

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Sharma, P., Sirhindi, G., Singh, A.K. et al. Consequences of copper treatment on pigeon pea photosynthesis, osmolytes and antioxidants defense. Physiol Mol Biol Plants 23, 809–816 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-017-0461-8

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