Effect of inoculation with AM fungi on lead uptake, translocation and stress alleviation of Zea mays L. seedlings planting in soil with increasing lead concentrations

In this work, a greenhouse experiment, arranged in a randomized block design 2 × 6 factorial with six replicates, was conducted to estimate the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on lead uptake, location and stress attenuation in mycorrhizal Zea mays L. seedlings. Treatments were the mycorrhizal inoculation (+M) or non-mycorrhizal inoculation (−M) and six lead concentrations (0, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 μg/g) to soil. The results showed that AM fungal inoculation could attenuate the oxidative stress of lead to Z. mays seedlings. The higher height, basal diameter and biomass of seedlings were found in mycorrhizal Z. mays seedlings growing in the soil with increasing lead concentrations. Moreover, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was higher than that of non-inoculated seedlings. AMF increased accumulation of lead in the root system. In the presence of 200, 500 and 1000 μg/g lead, there were higher lead concentrations in roots of mycorrhizal seedlings than in non-mycorrhizal seedlings. Lead was identified to dominantly deposit in the hyphal wall, the hyphal inner chambers, the hyphal inner-chamber membranes and the vacuole inner-chambers membrane. It is, therefore, hypothesized that lead stress can be decreased through the AM fungal cell. The ability of arbuscular mycorrhiza immobilizing lead can alleviate the phytotoxicity of lead to Z. mays seedlings.