Department of Botany, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra-136 119, Haryana, India
The present study was conducted to investigate the toxic effects of cadmium and lead salts on protonemal growth and bud formation. For this purpose bryophyte tissue were acclimated to the laboratory conditions by culturing on Nitsch's basal medium supplemented with various salts of heavy metals (Cadmium and Lead) in the specific concentration range 10−8-10-−4 M to assess physiological stress-response. Rounding of protonemal cells and formation of brood cells like structures were observed and Bud formation was adversely affected. The present study thus confirmed the morphological changes by mosses can be used to detect heavy metal pollution.
Acrocarpous moss, Brood cells, Heavy metals, Protonema morphology
