Transcriptome analysis reveals the tolerant mechanisms to cobalt and copper in barley.

Cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) co-exist commonly in the contaminated soils and at excessive levels, they are toxic to plants. However, their joint effect and possible interaction have not been fully addressed. In this work, a hydroponic experiment was performed to investigate the combined effects of Co and Cu on two barley genotypes at transcriptional level by RNA-seq analysis.

High accumulation of phenolics and amino acids confers tolerance to the combined stress of cobalt and copper in barley (Hordeum vulagare).

Cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) co-exist in the metal contaminated soils and cause the serious toxicity to crops, while their interactive effect on plant growth and development is still poorly understood. In this work, a hydroponic experiment was carried out to reveal the interactive effect of Co and Cu on photosynthesis and metabolite profiles of two barley genotypes differing in metal tolerance. The results showed that both single and combined treatments of Co and Cu caused a significant reduction in chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate of the two barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes, with the effect being greater for the combined treatment and the sensitive genotype (Ea52) being more affected than the tolerant genotype (Yan66).

Physiological and molecular mechanisms of cobalt and copper interaction in causing phyto-toxicity to two barley genotypes differing in Co tolerance.

The combined effects of cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) in their toxicity to plants is poorly studied although these two metals co-exist commonly in soil. In this study, a hydroponic experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of longer exposure of two barley genotypes differing in Co tolerance to the combined Co and Cu stress. The results confirmed the previous findings that Co accumulation in plant tissues was reduced by Cu presence, while Cu accumulation was stimulated by Co presence.

Copper alleviates cobalt toxicity in barley by antagonistic interaction of the two metals.

Cobalt (Co) commonly co-exists with copper (Cu) in natural soils, but the information about their combined effects on plants is poorly available. In this study, we hydroponically investigated the combined effects of Co and Cu on two barley genotypes differing in Co toxicity tolerance to reveal the interaction pattern of these two metals. The results showed that single treatment of Co or Cu at the dose of 100 μM led to a significant decrease of growth and photosynthetic rate, and a significant increase of lipid peroxidation, ROS radicals as well as anti-oxidative enzyme (SOD, CAT and GR) activities and glutathione content, with the extent of effect being less in Yan66 than Ea52.