Abstract

The experiment was conducted to study the influence of cadmium on growth and development of seedling mungbean genotypes (i. e. Basanti, Satya and MH 421). Results revealed that fresh (FW) and dry weight (DW) (mg) of shoot significantly decreased from 297.9 to 237.3 and 28.9 to 17.4, respectively. Similarly, the FW and DW of root also showed same trend, the values varied from 17.2 to 9.1 and 2.7 to 1.2, respectively upon cadmium chloride application. Decline in RWC (%) was noticed. The ratio of chl a: chl b and chlorophyll: carotenoid also showed declining trend i. e. from 2.67 to 2.48 and 2.78 to 2.37, respectively. Whereas increase in lipid peroxidation (MDA content) and proline content was observed and magnitude of increase varied from 0.93 to 1.53 mM MDA/g FW and 7.57 to 16.36 mM/g FW on imposition of cadmium chloride. However, total soluble carbohydrate and protein content showed reverse trend and maximum per cent decline was observed in Basanti (15.32 and 19.61%) and minimum in MH 421 (2.23 and 1.15%) genotype. The genotype MH 421 showed relatively better tolerance to cadmium chloride stress than other genotypes and can be a potential alternative for cadmium-contaminated soils.