Effects of the promoting bacterium on growth of plant under cadmium stress

AbstractCadmium (Cd) pollution is a huge threat to ecosystem health. In the manuscript, pot experiments were conducted to investigate the changes in plant biomass and antioxidant indicators under different cadmium pollution levels (0, 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg) of inoculation of plant growth-promoting bacteria ZG7 on sugar beet. The results showed that the accumulation of excess Cd in sugar beet exhibited different symptoms, including reduced biomass (p < 0.05). Compared with the group treated with uninoculated strain ZG7, inoculation of strain ZG7 significantly reduced the toxicity of sugar beet to Cd and enhanced its antioxidant capacity, with no significant differences in root biomass and increases in leaf biomass of 15.71, 5.84, and 74.12 under different Cd concentration treatments (25, 50, and 100 mg/kg), respectively. The root enrichment of Cd was reduced by 49.13, 47.26, and 21.50%, respectively (p < 0.05). The leaf fraction was reduced by 59.35, 29.86, and 30.99%, respectively (p < 0.05). In addition, the enzymatic activities of sucrase, urease, catalase, and neutral phosphatase were significantly enhanced in the soil (p < 0.05). This study helps us to further investigate the mechanism of cadmium toxicity reduction by inoculated microorganisms and provides a theoretical reference for growing plants in cadmium-contaminated agricultural fields.NOVELTY STATEMENTThe combination of microorganisms and phytoremediation is becoming a popular research topic. The selection of suitable plant growth promoting bacteria can not only promote the growth and development of plants and enhance their cadmium resistance, but also improve the soil quality. And the results of this study will be important for growing edible plants and improving soils in cadmium-contaminated areas.Keywords: Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla Lheavy metal pollutionoxidative stress Author contributionsTianpeng Gao: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing-Review and Editing. Deng Yang: Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing-original draft, Writing-review.Mingbo Zuo: Methodology, Investigation, Validation. YueLi Chen and Yuan Liu: validation. Minjuan Zhao and Minjuan Zhao: Validation, Writing-original draft, Formal analysis.Yuanyuan Shen: Validation. Ying Liu: Validation: Validation. Xu Jing: Validation. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThe datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. All of the authors have read and approved the manuscript. This work has not been published previously, nor is it being considered by any other peer-reviewed journal.Additional informationFundingThis study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant numbers NSFC 31860176,and 32101415], Key Research and Development Program of Gansu Province [20YF3FA037], Key Research and Development Program of Shanxi Province [2020ZDLSF06-06, 2021JQ-791 and XAWLKYTD012].