Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation and exogenous indole-3-acetic acid application induce antioxidant defense response to alleviate cadmium toxicity in Broussonetia papyrifera

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in soil poses a huge threat to plants even at low concentrations; Broussonetia papyrifera has great potential in remediation of soil heavy metal contamination. However, whether exogenous indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) application and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have synergistic effects on Cd tolerance of B. papyrifera remains unclear. To investigate the effects of AMF inoculation and IAA application on the tolerance of B. papyrifera to Cd stress, two experiments were conducted: the first to investigate the effect of AMF (Rhizophagus irregularis) inoculation on the tolerance of B. papyrifera to Cd stress and the second to investigate the combined effects of AMF inoculation and IAA application on the tolerance of B. papyrifera to Cd stress. Parameters including endogenous hormone concentration, antioxidant defense response, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and gene expression related to antioxidant enzyme system and hormone were measured. The results indicated that AMF alleviated Cd toxicity of B. papyrifera by reducing MDA content and improving antioxidant enzyme activities and Cd absorption capacity. Furthermore, the combination of AMF inoculation and IAA application had a synergetic effect on the tolerance of B. papyrifera to Cd stress through upregulating BpAUX1 and BpAUX2, which might contribute to root growth and root xylem synthesis, and by upregulating BpSOD2 and BpPOD34 to enhance the antioxidant enzyme system. This work provides a new insight into the application of IAA in the remediation of soil Cd pollution by mycorrhizal plants.