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How Plants Cope with Cadmium: Staking All on Metabolism and Gene Expression
Author(s) -
DalCorso Giovanni,
Farinati Silvia,
Maistri Silvia,
Furini Antonella
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of integrative plant biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.734
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1744-7909
pISSN - 1672-9072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7909.2008.00737.x
Subject(s) - phytoremediation , cadmium , heavy metals , metal toxicity , crop , phytochelatin , human health , agriculture , microbiology and biotechnology , shoot , environmental pollution , biology , environmental chemistry , environmental science , chemistry , agronomy , biochemistry , enzyme , environmental protection , ecology , medicine , glutathione , environmental health , organic chemistry
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.