Metal and Metalloid Toxicity in Plants: An Overview on Molecular Aspects

Worldwide, the effects of metal and metalloid toxicity are increasing, mainly due to anthropogenic causes. Soil contamination ranks among the most important factors, since it affects crop yield, and the metals/metalloids can enter the food chain and undergo biomagnification, having concomitant effec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plants (Basel) 2021-03, Vol.10 (4), p.635
Main Authors: Angulo-Bejarano, Paola I, Puente-Rivera, Jonathan, Cruz-Ortega, Rocío
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abiotic stress
Adaptation
Aluminum
Anthropogenic factors
Bioaccumulation
Biological magnification
Biotechnology
Cadmium
Cell division
Chelation
Copper
Crop yield
Food chains
Food contamination
Food security
Gene expression
Genomes
Heavy metals
metal toxicity
Metalloids
Metals
Mining
Organic chemistry
plant tolerance
Review
Soil contamination
Soil pollution
Toxicity
Transcriptomes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Worldwide, the effects of metal and metalloid toxicity are increasing, mainly due to anthropogenic causes. Soil contamination ranks among the most important factors, since it affects crop yield, and the metals/metalloids can enter the food chain and undergo biomagnification, having concomitant effects on human health and alterations to the environment. Plants have developed complex mechanisms to overcome these biotic and abiotic stresses during evolution. Metals and metalloids exert several effects on plants generated by elements such as Zn, Cu, Al, Pb, Cd, and As, among others. The main strategies involve hyperaccumulation, tolerance, exclusion, and chelation with organic molecules. Recent studies in the omics era have increased knowledge on the plant genome and transcriptome plasticity to defend against these stimuli. The aim of the present review is to summarize relevant findings on the mechanisms by which plants take up, accumulate, transport, tolerate, and respond to this metal/metalloid stress. We also address some of the potential applications of biotechnology to improve plant tolerance or increase accumulation.
ISSN:2223-7747
2223-7747
DOI:10.3390/plants10040635