Ethylene glycol tetra-acetic acid and salicylic acid improve anti-oxidative ability of maize seedling leaves under heavy-metal and polyethylene glycol 6000-simulated drought stress

Stress caused by divalent heavy metal ions and drought exert many toxic and adverse effects on seedling growth and development of plants, especially on leave growth. Organic acids such as ethylene glycol tetra-acetic acid (EGTA) and salicylic acid (SA) have been shown to alleviate the unfavorable effects exerted by these stresses on seedling growth and metabolism. In order to reveal the physiological mechanism underlying these toxic effects and the alleviated effects exerted by organic acids, maize seedling leaves (genotype Zhengdan958) were exposed for 7 days to different concentrations of cadmium (Cd2+), mercury (Hg2+), and lead (Pb2+) ions and to the drought stress-inducing polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000. The same experiments were also carried out in the presence of EGTA or SA. Treated leaves were analyzed for activities of the anti-oxidative enzymes catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and for the content of malondialdehyde (MDA). The results showed that stress treatments with the heavy metals Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ and with PEG all affected the activities of CAT, POD, and SOD, although the extent and patterns of these changes were different under different stress conditions. Both heavy metal and drought stress caused a concentration-dependent increase in MDA content. Treatments in the presence with EGTA or SA showed that both these compounds exerted certain alleviative effects on seedling growth under Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ stresses and PEG-simulated drought stress, with SA generally showing better effects than EGTA.