Microbial Consortium of PGPR, Rhizobia and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Makes Pea Mutant SGECd(t) Comparable with Indian Mustard in Cadmium Tolerance and Accumulation

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most widespread and toxic soil pollutants that inhibits plant growth and microbial activity. Polluted soils can be remediated using plants that either accumulate metals (phytoextraction) or convert them to biologically inaccessible forms (phytostabilization). The phytoremediation potential of a symbiotic system comprising the Cd-tolerant pea (Pisum sativum L.) mutant SGECd(t) and selected Cd-tolerant microorganisms, such as plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium Variovorax paradoxus 5C-2, nodule bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae RCAM1066, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus sp. 1Fo, was evaluated in comparison with wild-type pea SGE and the Cd-accumulating plant Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern.) VIR263. Plants were grown in pots in sterilized uncontaminated or Cd-supplemented (15 mg Cd kg(−1)) soil and inoculated or not with the microbial consortium. Cadmium significantly inhibited growth of uninoculated and particularly inoculated SGE plants, but had no effect on SGECd(t) and decreased shoot biomass of B. juncea. Inoculation with the microbial consortium more than doubled pea biomass (both genotypes) irrespective of Cd contamination, but had little effect on B. juncea biomass. Cadmium decreased nodule number and acetylene reduction activity of SGE by 5.6 and 10.8 times, whereas this decrease in SGECd(t) was 2.1 and 2.8 times only, and the frequency of mycorrhizal structures decreased only in SGE roots. Inoculation decreased shoot Cd concentration and increased seed Cd concentration of both pea genotypes, but had little effect on Cd concentration of B. juncea. Inoculation also significantly increased concentration and/or accumulation of nutrients (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, N, P, S, and Zn) by Cd-treated pea plants, particularly by the SGECd(t) mutant. Shoot Cd concentration of SGECd(t) was twice that of SGE, and the inoculated SGECd(t) had approximately similar Cd accumulation capacity as compared with B. juncea. Thus, plant–microbe systems based on Cd-tolerant micro-symbionts and plant genotypes offer considerable opportunities to increase plant HM tolerance and accumulation.