| Summary: | Heavy metal like cadmium (Cd) is inessential and highly toxic and is posing serious environmental problems for agriculture worldwide. Presence of Cd gives rise to several physiological and structural disorders that leads to reduction in growth and performance of agricultural plants. Evidence related to subcellular distribution and accumulation of Cd is still enigmatic. Experiment was conducted using hydroponic culture to examine the subcellular accumulation of Cd in Spinacia oleracea L. leaves under Cd stress (50 μM and 100 μM); moreover, the Cd toxicity alleviation using 5 mM silicon (Si) was investigated. Our findings suggest that fresh and dry biomass, shoot and root length, leaf area and length of leaf declined when exposed to Cd stress (50 μM and 100 μM); however, an increase was noticed when Cd treated plants were supplied with Si (5 mM). The content of Ca2+, Mg2+ and Fe2+ in apoplastic washing fluid and symplasm were found to be lower in plants treated with alone Cd, when compared to control. Higher Cd2+:Ca2+, Cd2+:Fe2+ and Cd2+:Mg2+ ratios were detected under cadmium stress in both apoplast and symplast of leaves which were lowered by the addition of 5 mM Si. The novelty of the current study is the detection of increased apoplastic and symplastic Cd concentration in aerial part (i.e., spinach leaves) under alone Cd treatment which was considerably reduced when supplied with Si. Moreover, a noticeable increase in spinach growth and beneficial ionic concentrations suggest that Si can ameliorate the Cd stress in crop plants.
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