Agronomy

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Dear Colleagues,

Heavy metal (HM) pollution caused by anthropogenic activities, such as mining, smelting, and fertilizer application, is increasing worldwide, and these activities cause HMs to leach into groundwater or accumulate on the soil surface. HMs can be absorbed and can accumulate in plants, and then enter the human body through the food chain. Although many metals are essential for plant cells (e.g., copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn)), all metals are toxic at high concentrations. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the tolerance or accumulation mechanism of plants to heavy metals, to establish comprehensive treatment technology regarding plant–soil interactions and achieve the treatment of contaminated soil.

The Special Issue “Heavy Metal Tolerance Mechanism of Plants and Improvement in Contaminated Soil” will publish comprehensive reviews and original research articles that cover the latest and novel discoveries on the mechanism of heavy metal tolerance in plants and the improvement in contaminated soil, including metals such as Cd, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe, Se, and Pb.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Molecular or physiological mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance or accumulation;
Integration of transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in heavy metal response;
Comprehensive treatment technology of plant–soil interactions for contaminated soil;
The genetic transformation of plants in their adaptation to heavy metal stresses.

Dr. Xiaojiao Han
Dr. Yuping Zhang
Dr. Yikai Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

21 pages, 5584 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Glycine Betaine Mitigates Heavy Metal Toxicity in Beta vulgaris (L.): An Antioxidant-Driven Approach

by Ali A. Badawy, Abdullah A. Alamri, Hebat-Allah A. Hussein, Noura F. G. Salem, Abadi M. Mashlawi, Sahar K. M. Kenawy and A. El-Shabasy

Agronomy 2024, 14(4), 797; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14040797 - 11 Apr 2024

Viewed by 931

Abstract

Plants are often exposed to non-ideal conditions during their growth. The toxicity of heavy metals as abiotic stressors is a significant concern due to their harmful effects on plants. Glycine betaine (GB) is a potent compatible solute that helps plants resist abiotic stresses and plays a crucial role in alleviating them. This study aimed to determine the effective role of glycine betaine (0.5 and 1 mM) as a foliar treatment in sugar beet plants to cope with the toxicity of cadmium (50 mg/kg soil) and lead (100 mg/kg soil). The application of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in cultivation soil noticeably suppressed morphological growth attributes, such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, sugars, and proteins. At the same time, the aforementioned levels of heavy metals significantly increased the levels of non-enzymatic antioxidants (phenolics and proline) and enzymatic antioxidants (peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, polyphenol oxidase, and catalase) in the root and shoot tissues of sugar beet plants. In contrast, the use of glycine betaine as foliar treatment at 0.5 and 1 mM alleviated the adverse impacts of cadmium and lead by promoting the aforementioned attributes. Furthermore, the application of 1 mM GB was more effective in increasing the contents of phenolics in root by approximately 16% and 29%, phenolics in shoot by about 25% and 10%, peroxidase activity by about 82% and 116%, superoxide dismutase activity by about 56% and 47%, polyphenol oxidase activity by about 9% and 36%, catalase activity by about 19% and 25%, in cadmium- and lead-stressed plants, respectively. Additionally, it reduced the levels of proline in sugar beet tissues. Overall, the application of glycine betaine has the efficacy to counteract the adverse impacts of cadmium and lead toxicity on sugar beet plants by enhancing the metabolic indices as well as the non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidant activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metal Tolerance Mechanism of Plants and Improvement in Contaminated Soil—Second Edition)

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