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How Plants Cope with Cadmium: Staking All on Metabolism and Gene Expression

How Plants Cope with Cadmium: Staking All on Metabolism and Gene Expression Environmental pollution is one of the major problems for human health. Toxic heavy metals are normally present as soil constituents or can also be spread out in the environment by human activity and agricultural techniques. Soil contamination by heavy metals as cadmium, highlights two main aspects: on one side they interfere with the life cycle of plants and therefore reduce crop yields, and on the other hand, once adsorbed and accumulated into the plant tissues, they enter the food chain poisoning animals and humans. Considering this point of view, understanding the mechanism by which plants handle heavy metal exposure, in particular cadmium stress, is a primary goal of plant‐biotechnology research or plant breeders whose aim is to create plants that are able to recover high amounts of heavy metals, which can be used for phytoremediation, or identify crop varieties that do not accumulate toxic metal in grains or fruits. In this review we focus on the main symptoms of cadmium toxicity both on root apparatus and shoots. We elucidate the mechanisms that plants activate to prevent absorption or to detoxify toxic metal ions, such as synthesis of phytochelatins, metallothioneins and enzymes involved in stress response. Finally we consider new plant‐biotechnology applications that can be applied for phytoremediation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Integrative Plant Biology Wiley

How Plants Cope with Cadmium: Staking All on Metabolism and Gene Expression

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References (186)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
1672-9072
eISSN
1744-7909
DOI
10.1111/j.1744-7909.2008.00737.x
pmid
19017114
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Environmental pollution is one of the major problems for human health. Toxic heavy metals are normally present as soil constituents or can also be spread out in the environment by human activity and agricultural techniques. Soil contamination by heavy metals as cadmium, highlights two main aspects: on one side they interfere with the life cycle of plants and therefore reduce crop yields, and on the other hand, once adsorbed and accumulated into the plant tissues, they enter the food chain poisoning animals and humans. Considering this point of view, understanding the mechanism by which plants handle heavy metal exposure, in particular cadmium stress, is a primary goal of plant‐biotechnology research or plant breeders whose aim is to create plants that are able to recover high amounts of heavy metals, which can be used for phytoremediation, or identify crop varieties that do not accumulate toxic metal in grains or fruits. In this review we focus on the main symptoms of cadmium toxicity both on root apparatus and shoots. We elucidate the mechanisms that plants activate to prevent absorption or to detoxify toxic metal ions, such as synthesis of phytochelatins, metallothioneins and enzymes involved in stress response. Finally we consider new plant‐biotechnology applications that can be applied for phytoremediation.

Journal

Journal of Integrative Plant Biology – Wiley

Published: Oct 1, 2008

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