BASIM H. FARAJ, SABA R. KHUDHAIER1, SEDIK A. K. AL-HIYALY, SALIH A. AL-SALIH, DHUHA J. MAHDI, M. T. A. MOHAMMED* AND MOHANAD R. DHEYAB
Environment Research Center, University of Technology, Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq
*(e-mail: Mohammed.M.TA@uotechnology.edu.iq; Mobile: +964 77072 53359)
(Received: May 15, 2022; Accepted: June 16, 2022)
ABSTRACT
Metal biofortification may effectively improve plant productivity via overcoming the various plant growing
constraints. This work was designed to examine the impact of zinc biofortification on soils synthetically
contaminated by various lead concentrations by growing mungbeans. Silty clay loam soil samples in
plastic pots were artificially contaminated with five lead levels and each Pb level received three zinc
concentrations. Ten mungbean seeds were planted in each pot during the growing summer season of
2019. There were significant differences between all examined crop characters, and this reflected the
capability of zinc biofortification in reducing lead toxicity. This indicated that certain metal biofortification might be the alternative technique to overcome soil toxicity due to heavy metal contamination.
Key words : Zn biofortification, Pb toxicity, mungbean, soil contamination, silty clay loam soils