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Nitrate reduces copper toxicity by preventing oxidative stress and inhibiting copper translocation from roots to shoots in Liriodendron Chinense

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Abstract

Nitrogen forms can affect metal accumulation in plants and tolerance to metals, but a few published studies on the effects on Cu toxicity and Cu accumulation in plants are scarce. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the responses of Liriodendron chinense to different nitrogen forms, by the oxidative stress, antioxidant enzymes system, GSH-AsA cycle, Cu uptake, translocation, and accumulation under Cu stress. We found that Cu-induced growth inhibiting was alleviated by added exclusive NO3−-N. Adding N as NH4+-N with or without NO3−-N was aggravated as evidenced by significantly elevated malonaldehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) compared to N-Null. Cu exposure and adding NH4+-N inhibited superoxide dismutase activity, but remarkably stimulated the activities of catalase and peroxidase, the efficiency of glutathione-ascorbate (GSH-AsA) cycle, and the activity of glutathione reductase and nitrate reductase, with respect to the control. However, adding exclusive NO3−-N progressively restored the alteration of antioxidant to prevent Cu-induced oxidative stress. Additionally, adding exclusive NO3−-N significantly promoted the Cu uptake and accumulation in roots, but reduced Cu concentration in leaves, accompanied by the inhibited Cu translocation factor from roots to shoots by 36.7%, when compared with N-Null. Overall, adding NO3−-N alleviated its Cu toxicity by preventing Cu-induced oxidative stress and inhibiting Cu translocation from roots to shoots, which provides an effective strategy for phytostabilization in Cu-contaminated lands.

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Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly.

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Funding

The work was supported by Excellent young talents funding plan of Jiangxi province (20192BCB23026; 2020JCQN-02); 5511 Science and technology innovation talent project of Jiangxi (20194ABC28010); Key technological programme in industry (2022YSBJ10005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangxi Engineering and Technology Research Center for Ecological Remediation of Heavy Metal Pollution, Institute of Microbes, Jiangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanchang, 330096, China

    **uyu Sui, **aoyan Sun, Liang Li, Zaijun **n & **aohui Li

  2. College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China

    **uyu Sui & **aoyan Sun

  3. Institute of Biology and Resources, Jiangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanchang, 330096, China

    Shujuan Liu

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  1. **uyu Sui
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  2. **aoyan Sun
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  3. Shujuan Liu
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  4. Liang Li
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  5. Zaijun **n
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Contributions

**uyu Sui: methodology, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—original draft preparation. **aoyan Sun: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing, validation, visualization, supervision, project administration. Shujuan Liu: investigation, data curation, writing—original draft preparation, validation. Liang Li: formal analysis, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing. Zaijun **n: writing—review and editing, formal analysis, investigation, resources. **aohui Li: writing—review and editing, Visualization.

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Correspondence to **aoyan Sun.

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Sui, X., Sun, X., Liu, S. et al. Nitrate reduces copper toxicity by preventing oxidative stress and inhibiting copper translocation from roots to shoots in Liriodendron Chinense. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 15946–15957 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32053-2

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