Attenuation of mercury phytotoxicity with a high nutritional level of nitrate in alfalfa plants grown hydroponically

•We studied the impact of nitrate nutrition on the tolerance to Hg in alfalfa seedlings grown in a semi-hydroponic culture system.•Mercury altered the accumulation, reduction and assimilation of nitrate.•High nitrate nutrition limited the accumulation of Hg and attenuated toxic symptoms.•Appropriate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPlant stress (Amsterdam) Vol. 7; p. 100131
Main Authors Carrasco-Gil, Sandra, Ortega-Villasante, Cristina, Sobrino-Plata, Juan, Barón-Sola, Ángel, Millán, Rocío, Hernández, Luis E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.03.2023
Elsevier
Subjects
Medicago sativa
Mercury
Nitrate nutrition
Oxidative stress
Tolerance
Tolerance
Oxidative stress
Nitrate nutrition
Mercury
Medicago sativa
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Summary:•We studied the impact of nitrate nutrition on the tolerance to Hg in alfalfa seedlings grown in a semi-hydroponic culture system.•Mercury altered the accumulation, reduction and assimilation of nitrate.•High nitrate nutrition limited the accumulation of Hg and attenuated toxic symptoms.•Appropriate degree of nitrate fertilization would be needed for optimizing phytoremediation of HG-polluted sites. Mercury (Hg) is one of the most dangerous pollutant heavy metals to the environment, which causes several toxic effects in plants upon accumulation, such as induction of oxidative stress. Nitrate (NO3) is the prevalent form to incorporate nitrogen (N) in higher plants, through its reduction to nitrite (NO2) by the enzyme nitrate reductase (NR). We studied the physiological alterations caused by Hg (0, 6 and 30 µM) in alfalfa plants grown at two different levels of NO3: low, (2 mM; LN), and high (12 mM; HN) for one week using a semi-hydroponic culture system. Several parameters of oxidative stress such as lipid peroxidation, chlorophyll content, biothiol concentration, and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathione reductase (GR) activities showed that HN plants were less affected by Hg. Nitrate reductase activity and NO3 concentration were also altered under Hg stress, with lower impact in plants nourished with high NO3. Our results highlight the importance of the NO3 nutritional status to improve tolerance to toxic metals like Hg.
ISSN:2667-064X
2667-064X
DOI:10.1016/j.stress.2023.100131