DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF HEAVY METALS ON PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS IN WHEAT VARIETIES

Heavy metal pollution threatens all living organisms in worldwide. Serious health problems can be induced in human being, when they enter food chain by plants. Heavy metals can result in adverse effect in plant physiologic and biochemical process. These effects differ between plant species as well as their varieties depending on several factors such as heavy metal types, concentration, plant parts and growth stage. To assess different toxic effects of zinc, cadmium and lead applied at 100, 200 and 300 mu M, we investigated physiologic and biochemical parameters of three wheat varieties. As a result, all applied heavy metals led to different effects in germination, mitotic index, photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant enzyme levels of wheat varieties. Well-tolerated variety was found as T. a. cv. 'Sonmez-2001'variety. T. a. cv. 'Sultan -95' variety was also moderate-tolerated variety. T. a. cv. 'Altay-2000' variety was more susceptible to heavy metal applications. Among applied heavy metals, high concentrations of Cd and Pb are most toxic elements in all varieties. In order to gain better crop productivity in heavy metal polluted area, selection of tolerated variety is a suitable approach. Therefore, evaluation of physiologic and biochemical parameters of any variety provides a valuable information to choose most suitable genotype for polluted area.