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Arsenic metabolism in freshwater and terrestrial plants
Author(s) -
Nissen Per,
Benson A. A.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3054.1982.tb00706.x
Subject(s) - arsenate , nitella , arsenite , arsenic , terrestrial plant , algae , lemna , biology , botany , lycopersicon , chloroplast , crassulacean acid metabolism , photosynthesis , environmental chemistry , chemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , gene
Freshwater and terrestrial plants differ markedly in their ability to metabolize arsenate. In experiments with higher terrestrial plants, e.g. tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Better boy, 74 As‐arsenate was readily taken up and reduced to arsenite. Methylation and reduction to methanearsonic acid, methanearsinic acid (indicated for the first time) and dimethylarsinic acid were apparent only in phosphate deficient plants. Lower and higher freshwater plants, e.g. Nitella tenuissima Kütz. and Lemna minima Phill., not only methylated arsenic but also produced considerable amounts of an arsoniumphospholipid previously identified in marine algae. These differences indicate that freshwater but not terrestrial plants have evolved mechanisms for rapid detoxication of arsenate, arsenite and other toxic arsenic species.