Heavy Metal Adaptation

Luis Rafael Herrera‐Estrella, Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico
Angel Arturo Guevara‐García, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

Published online: March 2009

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0001318.pub2

Fifty-three chemical elements fall into the category of heavy metal (HM) defined as the group of elements with densities higher than 5 g cm–3. In an ecological sense, any metal or metalloid that causes environmental pollution or that cannot be biologically degraded and is therefore bioaccumulated, should be considered as an HM. HMs are natural components of the Earth's crust, but as a consequence of human activities, in many ecosystems the soil concentration of several HMs has reached toxic levels. The adaptative responses of living organisms to HM contamined environments are efficient processes that include genetical, physiological, anatomical and ecological traits highly conserved in nature. These traits give certain species the ability to survive in toxic concentrations of HM elements. Actually, using multidisciplinary strategies including genomic, genetic, molecular, biochemical, physiological, ecological and agronomic approaches, substantial progress is being made to elucidate the mechanism involved in HM adaptation.

Keywords: heavy metal; pollution; bio-remediation; hiperaccumator plants

Figure 1. Plant heavy metal hypperaccumulators. (a) Allysum murale a nickel hyperaccumulator. (b) Thlaspi caerulescens a cadmium hyperaccumulator. (c) Stanleya pinnata a selenium hyperaccumulator. (d) Pteris vittata a fern arsenic hyperaccumulator. Images taken from http://images.google.com, using specie names as probe. Images reproduced with the permission from the Ondrej Zicha.
Figure 2. Cellular mechanism of heavy metal tolerance. (a) Heavy metal (HM) immobilization by ectomycorrhizas. (b) Soil HM immobilization by fungus (endomycorrhizas) exudates and transport of HM into the fungal arbuscules. (c) HM binding to cell wall and root exudates. (d) Reduced HM influx across plasmalemma. (e) Chelation of HM in cytosol by PhytoChelatins (PC), MetalloThioneins (MT), organics acids (OA) and amino acids (AA). (f) Protection of plasmalemma under HM stress by heat shock proteins (HSP) and MT. (g) Active HM efflux from symplast to apoplast. (h) Active transport of PC-HM complex into the vacuole. (i) Transport and accumulation of HM into the vacuole. Adapted from Hall, 2002, by the permission of Oxford University Press.
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Physiological Ecology | Human Impacts | Organisms and the Physical Environment | Plant Evolution | Plant Ecology | Plant Stress Physiology
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Article Title: Heavy Metal Adaptation
 
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Herrera‐Estrella, Luis Rafael, and Guevara‐García, Angel Arturo(Mar 2009) Heavy Metal Adaptation. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0001318.pub2]