scholarly journals Proteomics of heavy metal toxicity in plants

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Cvjetko ◽  
Mira Zovko ◽  
Biljana Balen

Summary Plants endure a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses, all of which cause major limitations to production. Among abiotic stressors, heavy metal contamination represents a global environmental problem endangering humans, animals, and plants. Exposure to heavy metals has been documented to induce changes in the expression of plant proteins. Proteins are macromolecules directly responsible for most biological processes in a living cell, while protein function is directly influenced by posttranslational modifications, which cannot be identified through genome studies. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct proteomic studies, which enable the elucidation of the presence and role of proteins under specific environmental conditions. This review attempts to present current knowledge on proteomic techniques developed with an aim to detect the response of plant to heavy metal stress. Significant contributions to a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of plant acclimation to metal stress are also discussed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biyao Zhang ◽  
Xiangnan Liu ◽  
Meiling Liu ◽  
Yuanyuan Meng

Monitoring phenological changes of crops through remote sensing methods is becoming a new perspective in assessing heavy metal contamination in agricultural farmlands. This paper proposes a method that combines the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized difference water index (NDWI) to detect heavy metal stress-induced variations in satellite-derived rice phenology. First, we applied the enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model to obtain the NDVI and NDWI time series for the NDVI–NDWI phase–space construction. Then, six specific rice phenometrics were derived from the NDVI and the phase–space, respectively. Last, we introduced a relative phenophase index (RPI), which characterizes the relative change of the phenometrics to identify the rice paddies under heavy metal stress. The results indicated that satellite-derived rice phenometrics are generally influenced by human and natural factors (e.g., transplanting date, air temperature, and solar radiation), while the RPI showed weak correlations with all of these variables. In the determination of heavy metal stress, the NDVI- and phase–space-based RPIs of unstressed rice both show significantly (p < 0.001) higher values than those of stressed rice, while the phase–space-based RPI shows more apparent statistical difference between the stressed and unstressed rice compared to the NDVI-based one. Our work proved the capability of the phase–space-based method as well as the RPI in the discrimination of regional heavy metal pollution in rice fields.


Biologia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radha Solanki ◽  
Rajesh Dhankhar

AbstractHeavy metal contamination of soil, aqueous waste stream and ground water causes major environmental and human health problems. Heavy metals are major environmental pollutants when they are present in high concentration in soil and show potential toxic effects on growth and development in plants. Due to unabated, indiscriminate and uncontrolled discharge of hazardous chemicals including heavy metals into the environment, plant continuously have to face various environmental constraints. In plants, seed germination is the first exchange interface with the surrounding medium and has been considered as highly sensitive to environmental changes. One of the crucial events during seed germination entails mobilization of seed reserves which is indispensable for the growth of embryonic axis. But, metabolic alterations by heavy metal exposure are known to depress the mobilization and utilization of reserve food by affecting the activity of hydrolytic enzymes. Some plants possess a range of potential mechanisms that may be involved in the detoxification of heavy metals by which they manage to survive under metal stress. High tolerance to heavy metal toxicity could rely either on reduced uptake or increase planned internal sequestration which is manifested by an interaction between a genotype and its environment. Such mechanism involves the binding of heavy metals to cell wall, immobilization, exclusion of the plasma membrane, efflux of these toxic metal ions, reduction of heavy metal transport, compartmentalization and metal chelation by tonoplast located transporters and expression of more general stress response mechanisms such as stress proteins. It is important to understand the toxicity response of plant to heavy metals so that we can utilize appropriate plant species in the rehabilitation of contaminated areas. Therefore, in the present review attempts have been made to evaluate the effects of increasing level of heavy metal in soils on the key behavior of hydrolytic and nitrogen assimilation enzymes. Additionally, it also provides a broad overview of the strategies adopted by plants against heavy metal stress.


Author(s):  
Sangeetha Annam ◽  
Anshu Singla

Abstract: Soil is a major and important natural resource, which not only supports human life but also furnish commodities for ecological and economic growth. Ecological risk has posed a serious threat to the ecosystem by the degradation of soil. The high-stress level of heavy metals like chromium, copper, cadmium, etc. produce ecological risks which include: decrease in the fertility of the soil; reduction in crop yield & degradation of metabolism of living beings, and hence ecological health. The ecological risk associated, demands the assessment of heavy metal stress levels in soils. As the rate of stress level of heavy metals is exponentially increasing in recent times, it is apparent to assess or predict heavy metal contamination in soil. The assessment will help the concerned authorities to take corrective as well as preventive measures to enhance the ecological and hence economic growth. This study reviews the efficient assessment models to predict soil heavy metal contamination.


2011 ◽  
Vol 347-353 ◽  
pp. 2735-2738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Yu Chi ◽  
Yi Shi ◽  
Xin Chen ◽  
Jian Ma ◽  
Tai Hui Zheng

Vegetation which suffers from heavy metal stresses can cause changes of leaf color, shape and structural changes. The spectral characteristics of vegetation leaves is related to leaf thickness, leaf surface characteristics, the content of water, chlorophyll and other pigments. So the eco-physiology changes of plants can be reflected by spectral reflectance. Studies on the spectral response of vegetation to heavy metal stress can provide a theoretical basis for remote sensing monitoring of metal pollution in soils. In recent decades, there are substantial amounts of literature exploring the effects of heavy metals on vegetation spectra.


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