Metals are natural components in soil with a number of heavy
metals being required by plants as micronutrients. Since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution, there has been a dramatic increase in toxic metal
pollution of the biosphere. Roots are the plant parts, which facilitate the
primary contact between a plant and a pollutant. Culture of genetically
transformed hairy roots of hyperaccumulator plant sp. Brassica juncea L. grown
in vitro was established to study the potential of in vitro hairy root cultures
for the uptake and accumulation of heavy metals (Ni and Zn) for their growth
and biomass from an aquatic environment. All the chemicals and reagents in this
experiment were of Analytical grade and were obtained from Hi Media
Laboratories Pvt ltd., Mumbai, India. At elevated concentrations of Ni and Zn
metals, hairy roots showed exponential growth and accumulation. In lower
concentrations, Zn might have no effect on the growth of root biomass and also
found to be it cause no dramatic decrease in root growth even if they are
accumulated. At higher concentrations of Zn, B. Juncea hairy roots were not
only found to be tolerant to Zn and also had the capacity to increase their
root biomass and no growth retardation was seen. All concentrations of Ni showed
a drastic change in root biomass growth irrespective of the duration of
incubation periods. Ni in higher concentrations caused an exponential increase
in root biomass growth and Ni showed no toxicity symptoms in hairy roots even
at higher concentrations for a longer time up to 8 weeks of our study period.
Ni was found to be an essential micronutrient for the growth of hairy root
biomass. From this study, it was cleared and concluded that hairy roots of in
vitro grown hyperaccumulator plant culture system could be a useful and
effective model (as it needs metals for their root biomass growth) to study the
metal uptake and accumulation from an aquatic environment.
Author(s) Details:
A. Mohamed Ismail,
Department of Biotechnology, E. G. S. Pillay Arts & Science
College (Autonomous), Nagappatinam, Tamil Nadu- 641046, India.
P.
Agastian Theodor,
Department
of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Loyola College (Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, India.
Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/RPMAB-V1/article/view/13764
