Plant response to heavy metals and organic pollutants in cell culture and at whole plant level

Golan-Goldhirsh A., Barazani O., Nepovím A., Soudek P., Smrček S., Dufková L., Křenková Š., Yrjala K., Schőder P., Vaněk, T.
JOURNAL OF SOIL AND SEDIMENTS 4: 133-140 , 2004

Klíčová slova: detoxification; heavy metals; phytoremediation; soil; tissue culture; xenobiotics
Abstrakt: Background. Increasing awareness in the last decade concerning environmental quality had prompted research into ‘green solutions´ for soil and water remediation, progressing from laboratory in vitro experiments to pot and field trials. In vitro cell culture experiments provide a convenient system to study basic biological processes, by which biochemical pathways, enzymatic activity and metabolites can be specifically studied. However, it is hard to relate cell cultures, calli or even hydroponic experiments to the whole plant response to pollutants stress. In the field, plants are exposed to additional a-biotic and biotic factors, which complicate further plant response. Hence, often we see that in vitro selected species perform poorly under soil and field conditions. Soil physical and chemical properties, plant-mycorrhizal association and soil-microbial activity affect the process of contaminants degradation by plants and/or microorganisms, pointing to the importance of pot and field experiments. Objective. This paper is a joint effort of a group of scientists in COST action 837. It represents an up-to-date experimental work and an overview on plant response to environmental stress from in vitro tissue culture to whole plant experiments in soil. Results. Results obtained from in vitro plant tissue cultures and whole plant hydroponic experiments, indicate on the phytoremediation potential of different plant species and the biochemical mechanisms involved in plant tolerance. In a pot experiment, several selected desert plant species, which accumulated heavy metal in hydroponic system, succeeded to accumulate the heavy metal in soil conditions. Conclusions and Recommendations. In vitro plant tissue cultures provide a useful experimental system for the study of the mechanisms involved in the detoxification of organic and heavy metal pollutants. However, whole plant experimental systems as hydroponics followed by pot and field trials are essential when determining plant potential to remediate polluted sites. Multidisciplinary research teams can therefore increase our knowledge and promote practical application of phytoremediation.
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