Arsenic affects the production of glucosinolate, thiol and phytochemical compounds: A comparison of two Brassica cultivars.

Arsenic (As), a non-essential metalloid, severely affects the normal functioning of plants, animals and humans. Plants play a crucial role in metabolic, physiological and numerous detoxification mechanisms to cope up with As induced stress. This study aimed to examine the differential response in two Brassica juncea cultivars, Varuna and Pusa Jagannath (PJn) exposed to different doses of As (50, 150, 300 μM) for 48 h duration. Change in morphological traits, concentration of individual as well as total GSL, sulfur related thiol proteins, sulfur content, and phytochemicals were analyzed in both cultivars. Accumulation pattern of As showed dose dependent accumulation in both the cultivars, being more in PJn. Our finding revealed that both cultivars were tolerant at low concentrations of As, while at higher concentration Varuna excelled over PJn. The increased tolerance of Varuna cultivar exposed to 150 and 300 μM concentration of As, correlated with its increased thiol related proteins, sulfur content and phytochemicals, which serves as defence strategy in the plant against oxidative stress. Differential pattern of total as well as individual GSLs content was observed in both Varuna and PJn cultivars. Varuna cultivar showed higher level of total and aliphatic GSLs, which serves as defence compound with other detoxification machineries to combat As stress. Our findings provide foundation for developing metalloid tolerant crops by analyzing the role of different genes involved in GSL mechanism and signaling pathways in different organs of plant.