Speakers - PMBWC2025

Biography

Professor Réda Djebbar has been a teacher since 1984 and Director of research at the Houari Boumediene University of Science and Technology (Algiers, Algeria).  He is team leader of Plant Physiology belonging to the Laboratory of Biology and Physiology of Organisms attached to the Faculty of Biological Sciences. He obtained his doctorate in 2012 and was promoted to Professor in 2018. He is interested in the Following topics : plant biotechnologies, plant responses to abiotic stress and oxidative stress, germination and priming of seeds. He has to his credit around fifty scientific articles, several participations in international scientific meetings and the supervision and defense of around ten doctoral thesis.

Abstract

Soil contamination by heavy metals is considered one of the major environmental problems in recent years because it poses a threat to human health and agricultural production due to their harmful effects on plant growth, food quality and environmental health. Heavy metal pollution involves metal ions that are not always essential to plants because they affect growth and development.  Our work aims to study the remediation of soils contaminated by nickel and is particularly interested in phytoremediation and chemically enhanced phytoextraction. This technique allows certain plants to amplify their capacity to absorb ETMs from the soil through the use of certain chemical chelates,  such as  EDTA  (Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid),  which increase the solubility of metals in the soil,  facilitate their diffusion in the rhizosphere,  and increase their phytoavailability.

Our results showed that nickel has a negative impact on peas  (Pisum sativum  L.)  because it affects their germination rate, plant growth, and protein content. EDTA itself also causes the same negative effects as nickel since it is a toxic xenobiotic substance. The combination of this chelator with  Ni amplified the action of these heavy metals on the different parameters studied.  Oxidative stress is manifested by the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and MDA which are an indication of damage to cell membranes. The enzymatic activities of catalase, APX, SOD, and GPOX were stimulated by EDTA, nickel, or a combination of both. Additionally, glutathione S-transferase activity was significantly increased in response to EDTA and the nickel. Our work also showed that there was absorption and accumulation of Ni in the leaves of Pisum sativum in the absence of EDTA.

Keywords: EDTA, lead, nickel, oxidative stress, Pisum sativum, pollution, phytoextraction