According to the ANOVA, plant height was affected by all treatments except Cd and Pb interaction at a significance level of 1%. The number of branches per plant was not significant by genotype. But there was a significant difference using other treatments at the level of 1%. The number of flowers and leaves was significant by all treatments, except G and the interaction of G (genotype) in Cd at the level of 1%. The number of clusters per plant was significant in all treatments, but no significant difference was found between the two genotypes at the level of 1%. Chlorophyll content was not significantly affected by Cd and Pb interaction. Pod length and the number of seeds per plant were also significant by Pb and the interaction of Pb and Cd and Pb in Cd at the level of 1%. The number of pods/plant and seed yield were also signed by the Pb, G, Pb in G, Pb in Cd, and Pb in Cd in G at the level of 1%. Also, 50% of flowering was not affected by any of the treatments. However, 50% of pods showed a significant difference by all treatments except genotype at the level of 1%. The weight of 100 seeds using Pb, Cd, and Pb ×Cd was significantly different at the level of 1% (Table 1). The gum percentage was significantly different only by the Pb ×Cd treatment at the level of 1% and the root depth showed a significant difference using all treatments at the level of 1%.
Pb TF was also significant using Pb×Cd and Pb×Cd×G at 1% and Pb×G at 5%. Pb BCF was significantly different by all treatments except Cd and Cd×G at the level of 1%. Cd TF was significantly different by Pb×Cd and Pb×Cd×G at the level of 1 %. Cd BCF showed a significant difference by Cd, Pb×Cd, Cd×G, and Pb×Cd×G treatments, whereas, BAC (Cd) was not significantly different by any tested treatments, while BAC (Pb) was significantly different by Pb, G, Pb×G, and Pb×Cd×G significant at the level of 1% (Table 1).
3.1. Simple impact of Pb, Cd, and genotypes
Mean comparison of the data showed that the height and number of branches in the control and Pb (50 mg/l) treatments showed the highest rate. The number of flowers, leaves, and clusters in the plant decreased significantly by increase in Pb content. The chlorophyll content was elevated significantly by increase in the Pb concentration. The pod length and number of seeds per plant in the Pb (100 mg/l) treatment had the lowest rate. Regarding the number of pods per plant and seed yield per plant, Pb (25 mg/l) treatments had the lowest rate. The weight of 100 seeds in the Pb (25 and 100 mg/l) had the lowest amount (2.01 and 1.77, respectively). Finally, regarding the plant biomass, Pb (100 mg/l) treatments showed the lowest level. A reduction in plant biomass can be related to disturbed metabolic activities because of decreased uptake of essential nutrients while growing under Pb stress (Gopal & Rizvi, 2008; Kopittke et al., 2007). Similar results have been reported by other researchers, Islam et al. 2008 reported that Pb toxicity in Elsholtzia argyi inhibited growth, significantly reduced plant height and root length, reduced fresh and dry weight of shoots, discolored leaves, and folded them. Compared with control treatments, Pb stress at 1000 mg kg−1 reduced root fresh weight (8.15 g plant−1) and shoot fresh weight (21.13 g plant−1) in C. tetragonoloba (Amin et al., 2018).
The gum percentage was also affected by the concentration of Pb. In Pb (100 mg/l) treatment, the gum was 32.2% (Table 2). A reduction in gum in the treatment of high concentration of Pb may be due to the release of polysaccharides in the pericellular space that largely determines the course of allelopathic processes of sorption, desorption, ion exchange, and cell protection from extreme influences (Lombardi and Vieira, 1999).
The total level of metals accumulated in the shoots is regarded as the most important factor for evaluating the potential of phytoextraction in plants (Zaier et al., 2010). The highest level of BAC (Pb) was observed in Pb (25 mg/l). BCF (Pb) increased with increasing the concentration of Pb. In Pb (100 mg/l) treatment, the BAC (Pb) was 4.11. The mobility, as well as availability of heavy metals in the soil, are commonly low, particularly when the soil is high in pH, clay and organic matter (Rosselli et al., 2003). Thus, it seems that at the low concentration of these heavy metals, their concentration in soil is so high. The highest Pb TF from root to shoot was 2.9, 3.7, and 3.54, respectively. This result emphasis that guar can accumulate Pb in root and can be a good source of Pb phytoremediation. It seems that Pb accumulation will occur in the apoplast cell of the root. Kopittke et al. (2007) reported that Pb reduces the fresh weight of buds in Vigna unguiculata. Also, their examinations using TEM microscopy showed that most of the root Pb accumulates in the apoplast of the outer cell layers of the root. Smaller amounts of Pb were also observed in the central cylinder apoplast. It was also observed that the amount of Pb accumulated in the roots is 10-50 times higher than in the buds (Kopittke et al., 2007).
Mean comparison of different levels of Cd in the studied traits showed that with increasing Cd concentration, height, the number of branches, clusters, seeds, and leaves per plant decreased significantly at the level of 1%. Also, the increase in Cd levels has caused the number of days to 50% of pods to be increased. However, the maximum days to 50% pods maturity was observed in the Cd (40 mg/l) (51.21 days) (Table 3). Root depth and gum percentage also showed a significant decrease with increasing Cd concentration at the level of 1%. Although in Cd (40 and 150 mg/l) treatment, the gum percentage compared with the control showed a significant increase, at 250 mg/l, this rate decreased (31.19%). Bioaccumulation coefficient (Cd) increased significantly with increasing Cd levels, at 200 mg/l Cd and the BAC (Cd) was 3.97 (Table 3). Mihalescu et al. (2010) reported that increasing the concentration of Cd decreased the length of the maize plant, especially at concentrations of 100 and 200 ppm.
Shanker et al. (2005) stated that Pb and Cd that are transferred to the aerial part of the plant, reduce the plant height due to disturbances in the cellular metabolism of the aerial part. The reason for this is the loss of cell dilation and the reduction of mitotic activity or inhibition of cell elongation. Cd in cells inhibits cell proliferation by affecting the cell walls and middle wall and increasing cross-linking between cell wall compounds.
Rai et al. (2005) studied the effects of Cd on Phyllanthus amarus and achieved the following results: Severe fresh and dry weight loss, a decrease in root depth, and a decrease in sugar, carotenoids, protein, and chlorophyll. These findings are consistent with our results. Investigation of different effects of Cd (9, 6, 3, 3, and 12 mg/kg) on cultivars of Vigna radigna showed that with increasing the amount of Cd, the fresh and dry weight of the plant decreased in all cultivars. But the response of cultivars to weight loss was different (Ghani, 2010), which is in agreement with our finding that varieties have different responses to BCF (Cd and Pb). It seems that the reduction of shoot growth due to the effect of Cd can be due to the reduction of chlorophyll content and photosynthetic activity (Shah et al., 2008).
The mean comparison on the studied variety and landrace showed that HG-867 showed superiority to Saravan landrace in terms of plant height, the number of flowers, seed/ plant, root depth, and BCF (Cd and Pb). However, gum percentage and biomass in the Saravan landrace were higher than the other variety (36.6% gum vs. 33.6%) (Table 4). The current results showed that HG-867 has a stronger accumulator rather than Saravan in the case of Pb and Cd accumulation in roots.
3.2. Interaction of Pb, Cd, and genotypes
The maximum TF (Pb) was observed in Pb (40 mg/l) in the HG-867 variety (Fig 4A). Also, the Saravan landrace in Cd (100 mg/l) treatment showed the highest amount of BCF (Cd) (Fig 4B). The HG-867 variety had the highest amount of BAC (Pb) compared with the Saravan landrace in Pb (40 mg/l) treatment (Fig 4C). With increasing the levels of Cd, its BAC (Pb) did not increase (Fig 4C). Regarding BCF (Pb), the Saravan landrace in Pb treatment (200 mg/l) showed the highest BCF (Pb) (Fig 4D). Ouzounidou et al. (1995) declared that the uptake of heavy metals can cause chromosomal aberration and division of cells to become unusual that significantly reduced plant growth.
The interaction of Pb in Cd in terms of TF (Pb) showed that Cd (100 mg/l) and Pb (200 mg /l) had the highest TF (Fig 5A). Regarding the BCF (Pb), the results indicated that Cd (0) and Pb (200 mg /l), as well as Cd (25 mg/l) and Pb (200 mg/l), had the highest BCF (Pb) (Fig 5B). Also, as can be seen in Fig 5C, the highest amount of TF (Cd) was observed in Cd (50 mg/l) and Pb (40 mg/l) treatments (Fig 5C). in addition, with increasing Cd concentration, the BCF (Cd) increased. The interaction of Cd (100 mg/l) and Pb (0, 40 mg/l) showed the highest amount of BCF (Cd) (Fig 5D).
Regarding the effect of interaction treatments on root length, the results showed that interaction of Cd (25 mg/l) and Pb (control), Cd (50 mg/l), Pb (control), and Pb (150 mg/l) caused the highest root depth (27, 26, and 25 cm, respectively) (Fig 6A). The interactions of Pb and Cd regarding gum percentage showed that treatment with Cd (25 mg/l) and Pb (control) (40 and 150 mg/l) showed the highest gum percentage (38, 39, and 40%). However, with increasing the concentrations of Pb and Cd, the gum percentage decreased significantly (Fig 6B). Regarding biomass trait, with increasing Cd and Pb, the amount of biomass decreased significantly (Fig 6C). Regarding the interaction effect of Cd and Pb on seed yield per plant, in control treatments, Cd (25 mg/l) and Pb (150 mg/l) and Cd (100 mg/l) and Pb (150 mg/l) were found with the highest amount of seed per plant. By further increasing the concentration of Pb and Cd, the amount of seed yield in the plant decreased significantly (Fig 6D). Fouda and Arafa (2002) assessed soybeans and reported that treatment with high concentrations of Cd reduced plant height, number of leaves, and leaf area, while Pb also caused water stress, thereby reducing leaf area, photosynthesis, plant dry weight, and plant height and it was also effective in reducing the number of nodes.
As can be seen in Fig 3, the maximum weight of 100 seeds was observed in Pb (50 mg/l) and Cd (150 mg/l) treatments, while the number of branches was more in Pb (0) ×Cd (150 mg/l), Pb (0) ×Cd (25mg/l), and control treatments.
Chlorophyll content decreased by the interaction of Cd × Pb, especially at high concentrations. It seems that a reduction in protochlorophyllide reductase enzyme activity because of heavy metals toxicity is the main cause for less production of total chlorophyll. Cd can inhibit the photoactivation of photosystem-II, which is the main reason for less pigment generation in plants while growing in Cd contaminated soils (De Filippis and Pallaghy, 1994).
A TF greater than 1 indicates that the accumulation in shoots is more than roots and soil, respectively (Marrugo-Negrete et al., 2016). In the current research, TF in Cd×Pb treatment was more than 1, which means that guar is a good accumulator of Cd and Pb in the shoot. This phenomenon occurs at a high concentration of the used heavy metals.
3.3. Correlation matrix
Table 5 lists the results of Pearson's correlation analysis. As shown in this table, plant height, number of pods/plant, root length, biomass, and pod length showed a positive correlation with seed yield, while TF (Pb) and BCF (Pb) were negative. A gum percentage was another main factor in guar. In the current research, plant height, weight of 100 seeds and pod number showed a positive correlation with gum percentage, while chlorophyll content was found with a negative correlation. there was a negative relationship between the effect of Cd and the specific surface area of the leaf. Cd reduces water absorption and transpiration, too (Vassilev et al. 1997). Decreased water uptake in Cd-treated plants can be well justified by reducing root growth.
3.4. Multivariate analyses
We conducted principal component analysis (PCA) for finding trends in the collected dataset and defining the multivariate relationships between the studied parameters (Table 6). In Tables 6 and 7, the individual values, the percentage of variance, the cumulative percentage, as well as the loading of the components are also given. Only the first four major components (PC1, PC2, PC3, and PC4) were found with values greater than one (6.59, 2.2, 1.95, and 1.38, respectively); thus, data can be divided into four variables comprising 73.21% of the overall variance.
These high values influence the distinction between landraces, and the high integrity of the relationships observed. In Table 7, the equation of the first four components is shown. The coefficients in this table are ordinary, and thus their numerical values reflect their weight when the corresponding component is formed. The highest coefficients were for the first part, plant height, branch number per plant, number of flower per plant, and number of clusters per plant (Fig. 1).
Cluster analysis (UPGMA) was also conducted through the Euclidean distance coefficient and the average method of linkage based on all the tested traits (Fig. 2) for approximating the relationship between the used treatments. The clusters were divided into two primary clusters (I and II) and two sub-clusters (IA, IB, and IIA, IIB) for Cd ×Pb treatment (Fig. 2). For example, Pb3Cd1 and Pb3Cd2 were most closely clustered (Fig. 2).