Original Articles
Dhriti Kapoor, Vandana Gautam,
Abstract
The response of radish (Raphanus sativus L.) was evaluated after soaking seeds in different concentrations of 24- epibrassinolide (EBL) and then grown under cadmium (Cd) metal. Seeds were soaked in three different concentrations of EBL (10-11, 10-9 and 10-7 M) for 8 hours and treated with 0.25 mM concentration of Cd. Metal was found to affect the growth (root length, shoot length, fresh weight, dry weight and percent germination), proline content, total osmolytes, levels of sodium (Na+), potassium (K+) ions, Cd uptake, malondialdehyde content (MDA), photosynthetic pigments (total chlorophyll, chl a, chl b, carotenoids, anthocyanins and flavonoids) and antioxidative defence system (antioxidants (ascorbic acid, tocopherol, glutathione), antioxidative enzymes (SOD, POD, CAT, APOX, GR, DHAR, MDHAR, PPO, GST, GPOX) and protein content) of 7-days old seedlings. The deleterious effects induced by metal were ameliorated by EBL. Maximum improvement was observed by 10-9 M EBL.