Phyto-toxic Effect of Heavy Metal (CdCl2) on Seed Germination, Seedling Growth and Antioxidant Defence Metabolism in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Variety HUW-234

The experiments were conducted to assess the phytotoxic effect of heavy metal (CdCl 2 ).The responses of treatment effect comprises the variables germination %, length (cm), fresh weight and dry weight (mg) of shoot and root, root/shoot ratio, seed vigour index (SVI), reducing sugar, non reducing sugar, total sugar (mg g -1 ), chlorophyll content (mg g -1 ), cadmium uptake (ppm g -1 ), proline content (µg g -1 ), relative water content (RWC%) and superoxide dismutase (SOD, unit×10 2 g -1 f. weight min -1 ).CdCl 2 treated sets showed reduction in percent of seed germination, length (cm), fresh weight and dry weight (mg) of shoot and root, root/shoot ratio, seed vigour index (SVI) with increasing the concentrations of CdCl 2 in comparison to control set.A reduction in breakdown of reducing sugar to non reducing sugar and total sugar is correlated with decline of amylase activity along with increasing the concentrations of CdCl 2 in comparison to control one.The chlorophyll content was found in decreasing trend with increasing the concentrations of CdCl 2 in comparison to control.However, the uptake of cadmium was increased with increasing the concentrations up to 100 ppm CdCl 2 .The proline content and superoxide Dismutase (SOD) was found to be high in higher concentrations of CdCl 2 treated set and while the enhancement was started since initial concentration CdCl 2 (i.e., 25 ppm).However, the least amount was recorded in control set.On the contrary, RWC% was found to be reduced with increasing the concentrations of CdCl 2 up to 100 ppm even though the maximum RWC% was measured in control set. the root to the aerial segment of the plant (Chaves and Souza, 2014).Although, several studies about Cd toxicity to the wheat have been reported but still it is needed to explore Cd toxicity in wheat crop (