Role of Potassium in Alleviation of Cadmium Toxicity in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Using excessive commercial fertilizers in agricultural lands is resulted in accumulation of toxic heavy metals in soils and this causes toxicity in plant organs and losses of crop yield and quality in plants. In this study, response of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plant to the mutual effects of cadmium (Cd) and potassium (K) were investigated. For this reason, five levels of Cd (0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 1.2 mM) and three levels of K (0, 200, and 400 mg kg-1) were applied to the soil. According to the results, increasing Cd levels decreased the shoot dry weight (DW), root DW, root length, total chlorophyll (Chl) and carotenoid (Car) contents, the shoot bio-concentration factor (BCF), and translocation factor (TF), whereas they increased the membrane permeability (MP) of the leaves and total accumulation rate (TAR) of Cd in sunflower. In the absence or presence of K, the shoot and root Cd concentration and shoot Cd uptake increased remarkably with Cd applications. Also, applied K levels increased significantly the K concentration and K uptake by both shoot and root.

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