Abstract
The natural ability of plants to accumulate, exclude or stabilize elements could be exploited to remediate soils contaminated with metals. To implement this alternative technology termed phytoremediation, it is crucial to better understand the various processes controlling metal mobilization or immobilization, uptake, and sequestration by the plants. Metal chelation is recognized as a vital biological process that regulates metal solubility, bioavailability, and internal storage in plants. Natural ligands, e.g. soil humates, root exudates components, or synthetic chelators, i.e. ethylene-diaminetretraacetic acid or EDTA, can interact in a yet-to-be-defined way to influence metal uptake and sequestration by plants. Here, we investigated the interactive effect of Cd and soil humates on metal acquisition and translocation in wheat plants. Metal contents in tissues and root exudates composition were determined, using X-ray fluorescence for metals and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for organic exudates. Cd inhibited biomass production, from −55% to −65% on tissue dry weight basis, and greatly reduced root exudation, of about −84% by dry weight. Cd treatment also resulted in a substantial co-accumulation of transition metals (Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn) and Cd in wheat roots. Moreover, co-treatment with humates alleviated some of the Cd effect showing biomass inhibition reduced by about 10% for the tissues and 17% for the exudates, while accumulation of some metals (Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd) in the root was enhanced. Thus, under Cd treatment, with or without humate, the enhanced accumulation of metals was not mediated via root exudation. This is contrary to the exudate-mediated Fe acquisition under Fe deficiency. The mechanism for this phenomenon is being sought.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alloway BJ (1990) Heavy metals in soils. Wiley and Sons Ltd., New York
Barona A, Romero F (1996) Study of metal accumulation in wild plants using principal component analysis and ionic impulsions. Toxic Environ Chem 54:75–86
Basu U, McDonald-Stephens JL, Archambault DJ, Good AG, Briggs KG, Taing A, Taylor GJ (1997) Genetic and physiological analysis of doubled-haploid, aluminium-resistant lines of wheat provide evidence for the involvement of a 23 kD, root exudate polypeptide in mediating resistance. Plant Soil 196:283–288
Chen Y, Aviad T (1990) Effects of humic substances on plant growth. In: McCarthy P, et al. (eds) Humic substances in soil and crop sciences; selected readings. American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, pp 161
Chen Y, Magen H, Riov J (1994) Humic substances originating from rapidly decomposing organic matter: properties and effects on plant growth. In: Senesi Miano (ed) Humic substances in the global environment and implications on human health. Elsevier Science B.V., pp 427–443
Crowley DE, Gries D (1994) Modelling of iron bioavailability in the rhizosphere. In: Mantley JA, Crowley DE, Luster DG (ed) Biochemistry of metal micronutrients in the rhizosphere. CRC Press Inc Lewis Publishers, pp 199–223
Cunningham SD, Ow DW (1996) Promises and prospects of phytoremediation. Plant Physiol 110:715–719
Dushenkov V, Nanda Kumar PBA, Motto H, Raskin I (1995) Rhizofiltration: the use of plants to remove heavy metals from aqueous streams. Environ Sci Technol 29(5):1239–1245
Epstein E (1972) Mineral nutrition of plants: principles and perspectives. Wiley, New York
Fan TW-M, Lane AN, Pedler J, Crowley D, Higashi RM (1997) Comprehensive analysis of organic ligands in whole root exudates using nuclear magnetic resonance and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Analytical Biochemistry 251:57–68
Fan TW-M, Baraud F, Higashi RM (2000a) Genotypic influence on metal ion mobilization and sequestration via metal ion ligand production by wheat. In: Eller PG, Heineman WR (ed) Nuclear site remediation. American Chemical Society Symposium Series, Washington DC, pp 417–431
Fan TW-M, Higashi RM, Lanes AN (2000b) Chemical characterization of a chelator-treated soil humate by solution-state multinuclear two-dimensional NMR with FTIR and pyrolysis-GCMS. Environ Sci Technol 34:57–68
Fan TW-M, Lane AN, Shenker M, Bartley JP, Crowley D, Higashi RM (2001) Comprehensive chemical profiling of gramineous plant root exudates using high-resolution NMR and MS. Phytochemistry 57:209–221
Hart JJ, Welch RM, Norvell WA, Sullivan LA, Kochian LV (1998) Characterization of cadmium binding, uptake and translocation in intact seedlings of bread and durum wheat cultivars. Plant Physiol 116:1413–1420
Hayes MHB, MacCarthy P, Malcolm RL, Swift RS (1989) Humic substances II: in search of structure. Wiley, Chichester, New York
Higashi RM, Fan TW-M, Lane AN (1998) Association of desferrioxamine with humic substances and interaction with cadmium(II) as studied by pyrolysis-gas chromatography — mass spectrometry and nuclear resonance spectroscopy. Analyst 123:911–918
Kinnersley AM (1993) The role of phytochelates in plant growth and productivity. Plant growth regulation 12:207–218
Laurie SH, Manthey A (1994) The chemistry and role of metal ion chelation in plant uptake processes. In: Mantley JA, Crowley DE, Luster DG (ed) Biochemistry of metal micronutrients in the rhizosphere. CRC Press Inc. Lewis Publishers, pp 27–62
Marschner H (1986) Mineral nutrition in higher plants. A PRESS, London
Marschner H, Roemheld V, Kissel M (1986) Different strategies in higher plants in mobilization and uptake of iron. J Plant Nutr 9:695–714
MacCarthy P, Clapp CE, Malcolm R, Bloom PR (1990) Humic substances in soil and crop sciences: selected readings. Proceedings of a symposium cosponsored by the International Humic Substances Society, Chicago, Illinois, 2 December 1985. American Society of Agronomy: Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wis., USA
Reddy GN, Prasad MNV (1992) Characterization of cadmium binding protein from Scenedesmus quadricauda and Cd toxicity reversal by phytochelatin constituting amino acids and citrate. J Plant Physiol 140:156–162
Romheld V (1991) The role of phytosiderophores in acquisition of iron and other micronutriments in gramineous species: an ecological approach. Plant Soil 130:127–134
Salt DE, et al. (1995a) Phytoremediation: a novel strategy for the removal of toxic metals from the environments using plants. Biotechnology 13:468–474
Salt DE, et al. (1995b) Mechanisms of cadmium mobility and accumulation in Indian mustard. Plant Physiol 109:1427–1433
Salt DE, Smith RD, Raskin I (1998) Phytoremediation. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 49:643–668
Sauerbeck DR (1991) Plant, element and soil properties governing uptake and availability of heavy metals derived from sewage sludge. Water Air Soil Poll 57–58:227–237
Shenker M, Fan TWM, Crowley DE (2001) Phytosiderophores influence on cadmium mobilization and uptake by wheat and barley plants. J Environ Qual 30:2091–2098
Strickland RC, Chaney WR, Lamoreaux RJ (1979) Organic matter influences phytotoxicity of cadmium soybeans. Plant Soil 52:393–402
Terry N, Banuelos GS (2000) Phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baraud, F., Fan, T.WM., Higashi, R.M. (2005). Effect of Cadmium and Humic Acids on Metal Accumulation in Plants. In: Lichtfouse, E., Schwarzbauer, J., Robert, D. (eds) Environmental Chemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26531-7_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26531-7_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22860-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-26531-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)