Over-expression of chickpea gene confers tolerance against major toxic heavy metal stress in .

Unlabelled: Heavy metals are ubiquitously present in nature, including soil, water, and thus in plants, thereby causing a potential health risk. This study has investigated the role and efficiency of the chickpea () gene against the major toxic heavy metals, i.e., As [As(III) and As(V)], Cr(VI), and Cd toxicity. over-expressing transgenic lines had reduced As(V) and Cr(VI) accumulation, whereas Cd accumulation was enhanced in the L3 line. The physiological responses (WUE, A, Gs, E, ETR, and qP) were noted to be enhanced in transgenic plants, whereas qN was decreased. Similarly, the antioxidant molecules and enzymatic activities (GSH/GSSG, Asc/DHA, APX, GPX, and GRX) were higher in the transgenic plants. The activity of antioxidant enzymes, i.e., SOD, APX, GPX, and POD, were highest in the Cd-treated lines, whereas higher CAT activity was observed in As(V)-L1 and GRX in Cr-L3 line. The stress markers TBARS, HO and electrolyte leakage were lower in transgenic lines in comparison to WT, while RWC was enhanced in the transgenic lines, and the transcript of gene was accumulated in the transgenic lines. Similarly, the level of stress-responsive amino acid cysteine was higher in transgenic plants as compared to WT plants. Among all the heavy metals, over-expressing lines showed a highly increased accumulation of Cd, whereas a non-significant effect was observed with As(III) treatment. Overall, the results demonstrate that transformed with the gene mitigates heavy metal stress by regulating the defense mechanisms in plants.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-021-01103-1.