EFFECTS OF CADMIUM AND ARSENIC IONS ON CONTENT OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENTS IN THE LEAVES OF GLYCINE MAX (L.) MERRILL

Abstract

Heavy metals belong to significant pollutants of environment accumulate in organisms and are unable to degrade. The goal of our experiments was to measure spectroscopically the content of photosynthetic pigments in the leaves of two soybean cultivars (Glycine max L.) exposed to cadmium (50 mg.kg-1 of soil Cd2+) and the metalloid arsenic (5 mg.kg-1 of soil As3+). Electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy analyses showed that after 10 days of plant growth in contaminated soil the shoots of the cv. Bólyi 44 accumulated much more Cd than As, and in both cases in significantly larger amounts than in the cv. Cordoba. However, leaves of the cv. Cordoba exerted more signs of intoxication since statistically significant decrease of some chlorophyll (Chl) content such as Chla, Chl(a+b) and Chla/b were detected in the Cd2+-treated leaves. Our results revealed, that leaves of the cv. Bólyi 44 has significantly higher amount of carotenoids that might serve as protection compounds against metal damage