Borah Seuj Priya, Begum Mariama, Ghosh Padmasri, Saikia Puja, Moulick Debojyoti, Bhattacharjee Chira Ranjan, Nath Arun Jyoti, Das Sayak, Choudhury Shuvasish
Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, 788011, India.
Department of Chemistry, Assam University, Silchar, 788011, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2025 Jul;32(31):18779-18794. doi: 10.1007/s11356-025-36774-w. Epub 2025 Aug 1.
Arsenic (As) contamination of agroecosystems is one of the most emerging threats affecting crop quality and human health. Thus, there is an insistent need to develop sustainable strategies for mitigating As-contamination and its impact on plants. Biochar, a porous carbonaceous material mainly derived from waste biomass, is known to sequester toxic elements from various substrates, including contaminated soil, and is considered a viable and sustainable option for remediation as well as stress mitigation. The present study evaluated the prospective role of a biochar derived from cattle manure in mitigating arsenate (As) induced stress in mung bean seedlings. The As stress imposition caused a decline in plant growth, which was observed in the inhibition of root and shoot elongation and biomass. The imposition of As stress in the absence of biochar amendment resulted in a strong increase in hydrogen peroxide (HO) and superoxide radical (O) production, while HO and O contents declined significantly (p ≤ 0.01) in the root and shoot of mung bean seedlings grown in biochar-amended soil during As stress. With a substantial reduction in reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction in mung bean seedlings grown in biochar-amended soil, we observed a significant (p ≤ 0.01) decline in malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the root and shoot during As stress under biochar-amended conditions compared to those under As stress in the absence of any biochar amendment. The impact of biochar was also observed in terms of antioxidant activities of enzymes such as catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), which showed significantly higher (p ≤ 0.01) activities in both root and shoot during As stress compared to those under As stress alone. However, the effect of biochar amendment in alleviating the levels of non-enzymatic antioxidants such as ascorbate (AsA) and total glutathione (GSH) was not markedly altered from those under As stress in the absence of biochar amendment. The SEM-EDX analysis also showed that biochar amendment improved the elemental composition of mung bean seedlings during As stress in both root and shoot by fortifying Si, Mg, Fe, Cu, Ca, and Zn; at the same time, it restricted the uptake and accumulation of As in both root and shoot. Since the biochar was amended at 1.5% and 2.0% per kg of soil, the effect of 2.0% biochar amendment was found to be more effective in alleviating As-induced stress responses in mung bean seedlings. Our results suggested a prospective role of cattle manure biochar in alleviating As-induced stress responses in mung bean seedlings by restricting As accumulation and fortifying the essential nutrient elements to uphold the nutrient imbalance induced by As stress, as well as modulating ROS production and uplifting antioxidant defense metabolism.
农业生态系统中的砷（As）污染是影响作物品质和人类健康的最突出威胁之一。因此，迫切需要制定可持续战略来减轻As污染及其对植物的影响。生物炭是一种主要由废弃生物质衍生而来的多孔碳质材料，已知能从包括污染土壤在内的各种基质中螯合有毒元素，被认为是一种可行且可持续的修复和缓解胁迫的选择。本研究评估了牛粪衍生的生物炭在减轻绿豆幼苗砷酸盐（As）诱导胁迫方面的潜在作用。施加As胁迫导致植物生长下降，表现为根和茎伸长以及生物量受到抑制。在不添加生物炭的情况下施加As胁迫会导致过氧化氢（HO）和超氧自由基（O）产量大幅增加，而在As胁迫期间，添加生物炭的土壤中生长的绿豆幼苗的根和茎中HO和O含量显著下降（p≤0.01）。由于添加生物炭的土壤中生长的绿豆幼苗中活性氧（ROS）过量产生大幅减少，我们观察到在添加生物炭条件下As胁迫期间，根和茎中的丙二醛（MDA）含量与不添加任何生物炭时As胁迫下相比显著下降（p≤0.01）。生物炭的影响还体现在过氧化氢酶（CAT）和超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）等酶的抗氧化活性方面，与仅受As胁迫相比，在As胁迫期间根和茎中的活性均显著更高（p≤0.01）。然而，添加生物炭对减轻抗坏血酸（AsA）和总谷胱甘肽（GSH）等非酶抗氧化剂水平的影响与不添加生物炭时As胁迫下相比没有明显变化。扫描电子显微镜 - 能谱分析（SEM - EDX）还表明，添加生物炭通过强化硅（Si）、镁（Mg）、铁（Fe）、铜（Cu）、钙（Ca）和锌（Zn）改善了As胁迫期间绿豆幼苗根和茎中的元素组成；同时，它限制了根和茎中As的吸收和积累。由于每千克土壤添加1.5%和2.0%的生物炭，发现2.0%生物炭添加在减轻绿豆幼苗As诱导的胁迫反应方面更有效。我们的结果表明，牛粪生物炭在减轻绿豆幼苗As诱导的胁迫反应方面具有潜在作用，通过限制As积累、强化必需营养元素以维持As胁迫诱导的营养失衡，以及调节ROS产生和提升抗氧化防御代谢。
