Effect of cadmium stress on barley tissue damage and essential metal transport into plant

Abstract

Conductometric assessment of electrolyte leakage from spring barley plant organs subjected to higher cadmium concentrations 10-2-10-4 mol l-1 revealed serious tissue damage. Therefore plants were grown under controlled environment conditions in a phytotron in Knops nutrient solution in two variants-the control variant without cadmium and experimental variant treated during the growth of plants with CdCl2 solution of 10-5 mol l-1. Barley plants were then separated into roots, residual caryopses, leaf bases, and leaves. Lyophilized samples were analyzed for the uptake and redistribution of cadmium, calcium, copper, iron, zinc, and manganese in plant organs by spectrometric methods. Cadmium caused significant decrease of calcium and manganese levels in all analyzed plant parts indicating that cadmium was a distinctive antagonist to intake of these metals. Cadmium treatment also lowered amounts of zinc and iron in roots. An opposite trend was characteristic for Cu, where Cd stress caused significant Cu increase and retention in roots and significant decrease in leaves. The combined usage of the electroanalytical technique-conductometry and spectrometric methods (ICP-OES, AAS) proved to be a useful tool for monitoring of tissue damage and intake and transfer of cadmium and macro- and microelements into barley organs.