Long-term exposure of Capsicum annuum L. var California Wonder to different concentrations of zinc nitrate: anatomical structure response

Subject Areas : Developmental biology of plants and animals , development and differentiation in microorganisms

Helal Nemat Farahzadi ¹ , Sedigheh Arbabian ² , Ahmad Majd ³ , Golnaz Tajadod ⁴

1 - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Islamic Azad University, North-Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Islamic Azad University, North-Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Islamic Azad University, North-Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
4 - Department of biology, Faculty of Biological Science, North Tehran Branch of Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2018-07-22 Accepted : 2019-03-17 Published : 2019-05-22

Keywords: Zinc, anatomical structure, Heavy metal, bell pepper,

Abstract :

Zinc (Zn) is an essential micronutrient for higher plants that plays an important role in regulating the nitrogen metabolism, cell multiplication, protein synthesis, photosynthesis and auxin synthesis in plants and also a constituent of metalloenzyme or a cofactor for several enzymes but at high concentrations is toxic for plants. The present study investigates the anatomical and morphological parameters like shoot and petiole length, total leaf area and leaf numbers response of Capsicum annum L. under different concentrations (0 (control), 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 and 15 mM) of zinc. Plants were grown in greenhouse under controlled conditions. Results indicated that increasing zinc concentrations caused significant decrease in stem and petiole length, leaf area and number of leaves (morphological parameters) compared to control plants (P ≤0.05). Also in anatomical studies we noticed several changes in cross section of leaf, stem and root. Certainly, zinc at high levels showed a negative effect on the overall growth of bell pepper plants.