Impact of automobile exhaust on biochemical and genomorphic characteristics of Mimusops elengi L. growing along roadsides of Lahore city, Pakistan
Ali Hasnain,
Hamed Dadkhah-Aghdash,
Muhammad Luqman,
Sohaib Muhammad,
Andleeb Anwar Sardar,
Shaukat Ali,
Farhat Mehmood,
Usman Ahmed Khan,
Zahid Mehmood,
Arooba John,
Binyameen,
Zafar Iqbal Khan,
Hsi-Hsien Yang,
Muhammad Umer Farooq Awan
Affiliations
Ali Hasnain
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Hamed Dadkhah-Aghdash
Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Muhammad Luqman
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore, Pakistan
Sohaib Muhammad
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Andleeb Anwar Sardar
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Shaukat Ali
Department of Zoology, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Farhat Mehmood
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Usman Ahmed Khan
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Zahid Mehmood
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, 413310, Taiwan
Arooba John
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Binyameen
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
Zafar Iqbal Khan
Department of Botany, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
Hsi-Hsien Yang
Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, 413310, Taiwan; Corresponding author.
Muhammad Umer Farooq Awan
Department of Botany, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan; Corresponding author.
Automobile exhaust releases different types of pollutants that are at great risk to the air quality of the environment and incidental distress to the nature of roadside plants. Mimusops elengi L. is an evergreen medicinal tree cultivated along the roadside of Lahore City. This research aimed to investigate physiological, morphological and genomorphic characteristics of M. elengi under the influence of air pollution from vehicles. Healthy and mature leaves were collected from trees on Canal Bank and Mall roads of Lahore as the experimental sites and control sites were 20 km away from the experimental site. Different physiochemical, morphological, air pollution tolerance index (APTI) and molecular analysis for the detection of DNA damage were performed through comet assay. The results demonstrated the mean accumulated Cd, Pb, Cu and Ni heavy metal contents on the leaves were higher than the control plants (1.27, 3.22, 1.32 and 1.46 μg mg−1). APTI of trees was 9.04. Trees in these roads significantly (p < 0.01) had a lower leaf area, petiole length and leaf dry matter content in comparison to control site. Increased comet tail showed that DNA damage was higher for roadside trees than trees in the control area. For tolerance of air pollution, it necessary to check the APTI value for the M. elengi at the polluted road side of Lahore city. For long-term screening, the source and type of pollutants and consistent monitoring of various responses given by the trees should be known.
