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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Invertebrate Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1533241

Effect of Cd-Zn compound contamination on the physiological response of broad bean and aphids

Provisionally accepted
Liya Chen Liya Chen Sijing Wan Sijing Wan Qintian Shen Qintian Shen Keting Zhao Keting Zhao Yanlan He Yanlan He Yexin Xie Yexin Xie Shiyu Tao Shiyu Tao Shuchang Zheng Shuchang Zheng Yi Zhang Yi Zhang Shigui Wang Shigui Wang Bin Tang Bin Tang Yan Li Yan Li *
  • College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The heavy metal elements cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) often coexist in nature, making the environmental media more prone to compound pollution. However, the research on the toxic effect of the Cd-Zn combination is still lacking, and the underlying toxic mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, in this experiment, we established four treatment groups with different ratios of Cd-Zn compound stress for the broad bean, Vicia faba L., and the aphids, Megoura crassicauda, to explore the growth and physiological adaptation mechanisms under different levels of mixed heavy metal stress.By measuring the germination rate, seedling height, and chlorophyll content of broad beans, we found that Cd-Zn mixed stress has a synergistic inhibitory effect on the growth and development of broad beans. Cd and Zn can be transferred through the food chain, while broad beans can resist complex stress by regulating the content of total soluble sugars and photosynthetic pigments in the body, as well as accumulating proline.In addition, in the first generation of adult aphids, the treatment with Cd12.5+Zn100 mg/kg significantly dominated the expression of trehalase (TRE) and trehalose-6phosphate synthase (TPS) genes, the carbohydrate content and trehalase activity in the aphid were expressed in response. The number of offspring produced by the secondgeneration aphids was significantly reduced under mixed heavy metal treatment, but it was not caused by changes in vitellogenin (Vg) content. These related results provide new avenues for further exploration of plant responses to mixed heavy metal stress, pest control, and management of heavy metal pollution.

    Keywords: heavy metal pollution, Cd-Zn mixed stress, Food Chain, Synergistic inhibition, Cumulative proline stress resistance, vitellogenin

    Received: 23 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Wan, Shen, Zhao, He, Xie, Tao, Zheng, Zhang, Wang, Tang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yan Li, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China

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