Ruchi Srivasrava1, Riyazuddeen Khan2, Nikhat Manzoor1, Mahmooduzzafar2
1Department of Biosciences, faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025, India.
2Environmental Botany Laboratory, Department of Botany, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi-110062, India.
ABSTRACT
Being a toxic, non-degradaable Mercury present in the environment and once mixed in soil, it undergoes transformation in to various mobile forms before ending into environmental sink. A study was carried out to investigate the effect of Mercury on the antioxidant defense system in Glycine max (L.) the seedling were exposed to different concentration of Mercury chloride (control = 0.00μM, T 1 = 0.05 μM, T 2 = 0.10 μM, T 3 = 0.50 μM, T 4 = 1.00 μM, T 5 = 2.00 μM). Under field condition the seedling were uprooted for analysis and observed at the pre – flowering, flowering and post- flowering stages for estimation of antioxidant enzymes activities such as Ascorbate peroxidase, APX (EC1.11.1.111), Superoxide dismutase SOD (EC 1.15.1.1), Glutathione reductase GR (EC1.6.4.2) and Catalase CAT (EC1.11.1.6) and also the contents of non enzymatic components ascorbate and glutathione. A significant increase in ascorbate peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity has been observed corresponding to increasing concentration of HgCl 2 . Catalase activity was decreased with increasing concentration of HgCl 2 while in case of non enzymatic antioxidant, total glutathione and total ascorbate content was decreased with increasing concentration of HgCl 2 . The biochemical aspects of Glycine max (L.) like photosynthetic pigment was decreased with increasing concentration of HgCl 2 . However, the osmolyte like proline estimation was increased with increasing concentration of HgCl 2 . Read more…
