Effect of vanadium on Nicotiana tabacum L. grown in vanadium-loaded soil

ABSTRACT Tobacco exhibited a relatively strong environmental adaptability, and it is appealing to explore its vanadium stress-responsive characteristic. An indoor pot experiment with tobacco cultivated in soil with respectively 0 (control), 75, 150, 300, 600, and 900 mg kg−1 of exogenous pentavalent vanadium V(V) and in vanadium-rich soil from a mining area with 385.6 mg kg−1 of vanadium (marked as M0) was conducted. Results showed that tobacco growth was significantly (p< 0.05) inhibited at all treatments versus control. The seedlings could not survive at 900 mg kg−1 vanadium treatment. Vanadium was mainly concentrated in the root. Tobacco showed a relatively high vanadium bioconcentration capability (0.19 − 0.74) and a low translocation capability (0.02 − 0.03) in soil with exogenous vanadium addition treatments. Contrarily, at the control and M0 treatment, tobacco exhibited a low vanadium bioconcentration capability (0.06 − 0.08) and a relatively high translocation capability (0.06 − 0.09). For M0 treatment, the high percentage of vanadium in the residual fraction was also conducive to tobacco establishment in vanadium-loaded surroundings. Overall, tobacco showed the potential to colonize vanadium-rich soil. In soils after growing tobacco, Proteobacteria was the most abundant microbial community of the rhizospheric soil, followed by Actinobacteria.