Biochar-mediated mitigation of dishwashing detergent-contaminated water effects on Vicia faba L.: Physiological and gene expression analysis

The increasing population and ongoing modernization exert significant pressure on the environment, particularly affecting water and soil quality. The increasing population and ongoing modernization exert significant pressure on the environment, particularly affecting water and soil quality. Biochar (BC) is increasingly recognized as a sustainable solution for enhancing plant growth and mitigating environmental stress, due to its distinctive properties, including improving soil permeability and retaining nutrients and water. The study aimed to assess the effect of detergents at high levels (25, 50 and 75 %) and subsequently evaluate the potential role of BC in reducing the adverse impact of the water contaminated with detergents on growth, productivity and gene expression. The morphological parameters analysed were (height, number of leaves, number of pods, number of seeds, leaf area and chlorophyll contents). Control treatments have used tap water for irrigation. Gene expression analysis was performed using the RT-qPCR technique to detect the expression of stress-related genes (Unigene077619 calcium-binding protein, Unigene047182 zinc ion-binding protein and Unigene072411 alpha/beta fold hydrolase). The results indicated that the effect of detergents were concentration-dependent and statistically significant, except for leaf area, that showed an inverse correlation with increasing detergent concentration. The 75 % showed the highest negative impact on growth parameters and gene expression pattern. BC treatments were evaluated against 75 % detergent concentration at application rates of 3 %, 5 % and 10 %. The 5 % BC amendment demonstrated that the most effective mitigation was followed by 3 % and 10 %, respectively. The study concluded that BC revealed a positive effect on cope with abiotic stresses such as water contamination with detergents.