Influences of mycorrhizal inoculum on Cd and Pb uptake by wheat plant

Abstract

The investigation was carried out in the greenhouse, College of Science, Salahaddin University- Erbil, Iraq, from November 2018 to May 2019 for assessing the impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in sterilized soil with addition of different Lead Pb levels ( 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 µg kg -1), Cadmium Cd levels (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 mg kg -1) and their interactions on vegetative growth characteristics, yield and Pb and Cd concentration in root and seeds of wheat, using factorial experiment according to Completely Randomized Design (Factorial C.R.D) with three replicates on vegetative characteristics, yield in addition to lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) concentration of roots and seeds of wheat cultivar (Triticum aestivum L.). The main results were summarized as follow:The interaction effect between (Mycorrhizal inoculum levels of Pb), (Mycorrhizal inoculum levels of Cd) and (Mycorrhizal inoculum levels of Pb and Cd) caused an increased in grain yield, the highest values (1.28, 1.03 and 1.08) g pot -1 were recorded from interaction treatments of (MPb150, MCd80 and MPb100Cd40) respectively. The application of Pb, Cd and their interactions caused a decrease in mycorrhizal infection from (80%) to (23.33, 60.33 and 20.00%) respectively.The mycorrhizal infection protected the plant from the toxic effect of Pb and Cd. The interaction treatments of (MPb and MCd) caused decreased in Pb concentration of wheat seeds from (10.07) µg kg-1 to (3.65 and3.33)µg kg-1 respectively. While the lowest Pb concentration (0.83) µg kg-1 was recorded from MPb50Cd20. The studied combination treatments also caused decrease in Cd concentration of wheat seeds.